"Dumb and Dumber" Producers Lawsuit For Sequel

Newsflash from your Hollywood Attorney:

Riza Aziz and Joey McFarland’s company says it has no contract with Brad Krevoy and Steve Stabler, who insist they still have rights through their original New Line deal.

Red Granite Pictures filed a lawsuit Monday against producers Brad Krevoy and Steve Stabler, seeking to exclude them from any involvement as producers in the upcoming sequel to the hit 1994 comedy Dumb and Dumber -- to once again star Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels -- set up at Universal Pictures.

Red Granite, run by Riza Aziz (the son of Malaysian Prime Minster Tun Abdul Razak) and financier Joey McFarland, claims in the suit filed in L.A. Superior Court that it has no contract with Krevoy and Stabler for what the company is calling Dumb and Dumber To.

Krevoy and Stabler were partners at the time Dumb and Dumber was made, and both got producing credits. They say they were involved in conceiving and making the movie, which became a surprise breakout hit, grossing more than $246 million worldwide.

Krevoy and Stabler told The Hollywood Reporter that their contract with New Line from the original production says they do have a contractual right to be involved in any remake or sequel.

“Red Granite has a pattern and a history of attempting to violate contracts of producers that have contractual rights in their projects,” says Krevoy. “They think they can arbitrarily wave a wand and make facts go away, but that is not the case with us.”

Says Stabler, “This is a pattern of conduct that these two have repeated, having tried to do the exact same thing to Alexandra Milchan on [the upcoming movie] The Wolf of Wall Street.”

The suit says Krevoy and Stabler have not “furnished any preproduction, producing or any other services to Red Granite in connection with Dumb and Dumber To.”

That is not for lack of effort, says Stabler: “We’ve attempted to be involved in every aspect of preproduction and have been denied by Red Granite.”

Red Granite tried to set up the sequel at New Line Cinema (then an independent company but now owned by Warner Bros.), but that studio passed.

Red Granite then made a deal earlier this year for Universal Pictures to distribute the movie, which sources say it will finance at a cost of close to $40 million.

Red Granite says in the lawsuit it has a deal to acquire all rights to the movie and the underlying rights from New Line.

Read More.... http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/dumb-dumber-sequel-red-granite-585635

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