Producers Dispute 'Godzilla' Studio Denied Arbitration

In a ruling Friday, a Superior Court judge refused to enforce a clause in an unsigned contract with producers Dan Lin, Roy Lee and Doug Davidson.

Legendary Pictures, the studio behind the upcoming reboot of Godzilla, suffered a setback in court Friday in its dispute with three producers who claim they were unfairly ousted from the project.

Producers Dan Lin, Roy Lee and Doug Davidson claim in a January lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court that they brought the Godzilla project to Legendary and worked on the film for more than a year before being summarily dumped. Legendary claims in its own suit that it has no obligation to the producers. The dispute has generated high interest in Hollywood because Legendary's moves are in contrast to typical studio/producer relationships in which those who generate a movie project are included when the project gets made.  

Legendary wanted the dispute to be litigated in a private arbitration, filing a motion with the court to enforce an arbitration clause in a long-form contract between Legendary and the producers. But that long-form deal never was signed, and in a ruling Friday, Judge Abraham Kahn found that it was not enforceable for the purposes of an arbitration.

So the case now will proceed in court after a required mediation. And although the judge's ruling that the long-form agreement wasn't enforceable applies only to the arbitration clause, the ruling is likely a blow to Legendary because its case is based in part on the overall enforceability of that contract, which it claims gives it the right to make Godzilla without Lin, Lee and Davidson. The producers argue that they had an oral agreement to be included on the movie.

“We are delighted that the judge agreed with us that the draft long-form agreement was not binding on the parties requiring arbitration," the producers' lawyer Larry Stein tells The Hollywood Reporter. "We look forward to trying this case in court. The defendants’ attempt to force it to arbitration failed. ”

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"Dark Knight Rises" Moves to Arbitration

The dispute over which agency -- CAA or WME -- is entitled to millions of dollars in commissions from the Batman director moves away from public court.

On Tuesday, The Dark Knight Rises director Christopher Nolan dismissed a lawsuit against his former agency CAA and current agency William Morris Endeavor. The dispute will instead be handled before a three judge panel in arbitration.

The legal action was filed last September and was intended to suss out who should receive commissions for his work.

Nolan left CAA last year to follow his agent Dan Aloni to WME. The defection caused a problem for Nolan. Both agencies claimed they are entitled to the millions of dollars that he and his wife and producing partner received from the last blockbuster Batman movie. CAA contended that it should be paid for projects initiated while he was a client while WME said that as his agency of record when The Dark Knight Rises was released, it deserved the money.

Since the lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Nolans by attorneys Bryan Freedman and Brian Turnauer of Freedman & Taitelman, the parties have met privately to discuss the situation. Nolan's lawyers requested and got extensions of time to serve the agencies. Neither side made any big claims in open court, and Nolan preferred to have the two agencies hash out the differences without taking a position on which side was going to get the commissions.

It appears that the agencies prefer to deal with the case in private arbitration.

The development follows the move of Aloni's own $5 million lawsuit against CAA to arbitration. The talent agent contends being denied a bonus payment and other compensation owed to him from his representation of top clients including Nolan. That case ended up in arbitration after a judge determined the terms of Aloni's arbitration clause applied to the dispute.

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Universal, Paramount's Brad Grey at War Over $50M in 'Sopranos' Profits

Arbitration has begun over whether Grey, who executive produced the HBO mob drama, must split revenue with the NBCUniversal-owned studio. Universal has put a hit out on Brad Grey for allegedly not sharing $50 million or more in profits from The Sopranos.

NBCUniversal-owned studio has filed a confidential arbitration claim against the Paramount chairman and CEO for failing to honor a 50-50 profit-sharing arrangement on the hit HBO series. Grey, who was a principal at the Brillstein-Grey management/production company before taking the reins of Paramount, executive produced on the long-running mob drama and is believed to have earned tens of millions of dollars from its success.

Universal in 1996 bought half of Brillstein-Grey, but divested its interest in the company in 1999. At the time, sources say the studio and Grey entered into a separation agreement that divvied up rights to several TV projects in development. Sopranos was one of those projects, and Universal is arguing that the separation agreement entitles it to split Grey's profits from the show.

Grey is said to have been paid $50 million or more in revenue from HBO, which could entitle Universal to $25 million or more if it is successful in the arbitration. The claim was filed in December, according to sources.

The dispute is a holdover from Grey's pre-Paramount life as a top manager and producer. Still, it's extremely rare for a top Hollywood executive to be targeted in such a way by a rival studio. Making matters more noteworthy, Grey and Universal COO Ron Meyer are said to be close friends.

The legal dispute had been brewing for some time, but Universal escalated the fight in December, hiring litigator Daniel Petrocelli at O'Melveny & Myers to initiate the arbitration proceeding. Grey has hired Evan Chesler at the white-shoe New York law firm Cravath Swaine & Moore to handle the case.

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