Randy Quaid wants to see some of those Brokeback dollars, according to an article in Variety today. "Randy Quaid has filed a lawsuit against Focus Features alleging that Universal's specialty arm duped him into deferring normal pay for his role in "Brokeback Mountain" by falsely representing the project as a low-budget indie pic with no prospect of making money." Apparently, when Quaid was in salary talks with sweet little Taiwainese director Ang Lee, Lee characterized the film's monetary prospects in much more modest terms than what the Oscar-winning film ended up doing at the box office.
The best part of this article is two fold: That "defendants were engaging in a 'movie laundering' scheme designed to obtain the services of talent such as Randy Quaid on economically unfavorable art film terms" and that "Randy Quaid is an instantly recognizable household name and much-admired actor on the world's stage with a worldwide box office total of nearly $2 billion. His likeness, talent and name are worth millions of dollars and are solely his property." Hehe, lawsuit speak is the best ever.
Quaid wants Universal Pictures, the owners of Focus Features, to show him the money to the tune of $10 million. Stay tuned to see if the star of such pictures as The Paper, Caddyshack II and The Adventures of Pluto Nash is vindicated.
Posted by karen at March 24, 2006 6:06 PM