Paramount has tentatively prevailed in a legal dispute with a Morgan Stanley-backed film finance entity that claims it was cheated out of profts from No Country for Old Men due to a hefty payment to actorTommy Lee Jones.
As we’ve reported, Paramount, which distributed the 2007 best picture Oscar winner via its Paramount Vantage label, was forced to pay Jones a $17.5 million box office bonus when an arbitrator found the studio’s lawyers had made an error in drafting Jones’ deal to star in the movie (the lawyers ultimately paid a $2.6 million settlement to the studio for the error).
Morgan Stanley’s Marathon Funding, which had a multipicture financing deal with Paramount that included No Country, later cried foul, claiming its arrangement with the now-shuttered Paramount Vantage entitled it to 25 percent of “net distribution revenue” from the movie. Marathon in April 2010 filed a breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit claiming the studio shouldn’t be able to deduct a $2.45 million charge from the pool of money it must pay to Marathon for backing the movie.
(TheHollywoodReporter/Belloni)
Politics of Hollywood/ Varona
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