Today is a good day to die.
I didn't say for whom.
Posted on 02/07/2011 5:16:06 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
Filmmaker Michael Moore has sued Harvey and Bob Weinstein, accusing the brothers of “Hollywood accounting tricks” and “financial deception” that cheated him out of at least $2.7 million in profits from the hit documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. In a lawsuit filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court, Moore says the Weinsteins and an affiliated entity called the Fellowship Adventure Group agreed to split profits from the film 50-50 but then diverted monies to hide them from Moore.
The suit for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and constructive fraud claims that in 2008 Moore conducted an audit of the 2004 film, which grossed $222 million worldwide, and “discovered substantial irregularities in the accounting” that resulted in a “gross underpayment to [Moore],” the lawsuit says.
Those irregularities include an alleged secret deduction of $2.5 million in revenue that the Weinstiens claimed was paid to acquire an interest owned in the film by a predecessor company called Icon Entertainment International; a 7.5% “override” fee on advertising costs in the amount of $1.2 million, “despite the fact that [the Weinsteins] did not incur the advertising costs and the [deal] did not permit [them] to deduct these costs”; as well as additional improper deductions of fees paid to distribution consultants, accountants, residuals, foreign taxes and travel expenses, including what Moore says are the “grossly excessive and unreasonable” costs of hiring a private jet to carry a single passenger to Europe.
Weinstein lawyer Bert Fields dismissed the claims in an interview.
“The Weinsteins have paid everything they should have paid,” Fields tells THR. “Mr. Moore has received a huge amount of money from this film and we believe he is overreaching. He should be ashamed of himself”
(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...
Even the oil companies blush at that level of bait & switch record keeping.
LOL @ Fellowship Adventure Group...Reminds me of Film Actor’s Guild from Team America. F.A.G.
Anyway, couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Fellowship Adventure Group (F.A.G.)?
Oh the horror! Michael “Conscience of Us All” Moore is chasing after (gulp!) FILTHY CAPITALIST DOLLARS!!!??
Mikey me rotund lad, we thought you never touch the stuff!
;^)
The price of those buffett’s must really be going up.
So how much did he really get for this movie? Anyone know?
This gasbag bemoans others making a buck, but he'll run over you to pick up a dime. At least I am an unabashed capitalist and do not begrudge anyone making an honest dollar; however, I do take issue with hypocrites like Planet Moore.
Why is Moore complaining? Doesn’t he believe money is evil? Why is he being such a whiny capitalist?
Hollywood lawyers snort that much coke in a month.
This suit aint about the money, its about calling the Weinsteins a bunch of jew crooks in public.
This vicious anti-semite Moore has no idea what can of worms he has just opened.
Good thing he has enough money to keep him in cheeseburgers for life, he's made his last money making film.
From http://www.slate.com/id/2117923/
Fahrenheit 9/11, now an event, took in more than $228 million in ticket sales worldwide, a record for a documentary, and sold 3 million DVDs, which brought in another $30 million in royalties. After the theaters took their share of the movie’s gross (roughly 50 percent) and distributors deducted the marketing expenses (including prints, advertising, dubbing, and custom clearance) and took their own cut, the net receipts returned to Disney were $78 million.
Disney now had to pay Michael Moore’s profit participation. Under normal circumstances, documentaries rarely, if ever, make profits (especially if distributors charge the usual 33 percent fee). So, when Miramax made the deal for Fahrenheit 9/11, it allowed Moore a generous profit participation—which turned out to be 27 percent of the film’s net receipts. Disney, in honoring this deal, paid Moore a stunning $21 million. Moore never disclosed the amount of his profit participation. When asked about it, the proletarian Moore joked to reporters on a conference call, “I don’t read the contracts.”
I’ve heard that there is no single industry more corrupt than entertainment. Actors and musicians are routinely screwed out of big bucks.
Big glom Mikey can’t make that kinda money in Cuba now can he. Leftistas profit from capitalism yet they trash it publicly for profit. Part of the mental disorder syndrome. Oh yeh, those fellow leftists ripping MM off too. Par for the course.
Thanks. $220 Mil is a lot but then about half goes to movie theaters, there is advertising and a lot of other parties that want a cut.
And it goes to show that most movie stars are a lot less richer than we think.
Greedy bastard.
This vicious anti-semite Moore has no idea what can of worms he has just opened.
Good thing he has enough money to keep him in cheeseburgers for life, he's made his last money making film.
You nailed it exactly.
Kudos.
You are either personally involved in the industry, or supernatually insightful.
LOL! Red on Red! I hope they rip each other to shreds.
Actually, used to live with Aaron Russo's cousin and Art Metranos's niece, actually drove him to cop some weed in the Village in the mid eighties.
Cool times.
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