‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Producers And Anthony McCarten End Scribe’s Lawsuit Over Freddie Mercury Biopic Profits – Update

UPDATED with the latest: The two-year-old lawsuit between Bohemian Rhapsody Writer Anthony McCarten and the producers of the Oscar-winning film have passed away.

On Halloween, the two-time Oscar-nominated author’s lawyers filed paperwork for a “motion to dismiss” in Los Angeles Superior Court. The document calls for McCarten’s November 2021 lawsuit against Graham King-led GK Films LLC and production company WAGW Inc. must win about the blockbuster biopic “with prejudice” is rejected.

This finally ends the legal battle in which McCarten wanted to receive the 5% of GK profits he was allegedly promised for writing the Freddie Mercury film. No comparative information or other details were disclosed in the October 31 filing.

As Queen herself once sang: “Easy Come, Easy Go, Little High, Little Low.”

BEFORE, November 2021 EXCLUSIVE: Bohemian Rhapsody Screenwriter Anthony McCarten has filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Graham King and his GK Films over amounts owed for the 2018 Best Picture-nominated film about Queen and legendary singer Freddie Mercury.

The hearing took place today and offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at what happens when participants rely on Studio Net Point transactions. The $55 million budget film grossed $911 million worldwide, yet according to Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation’s financial statements: Bohemian Rhapsody is in the red at $51 million.

The legal process is a little complicated because it names the producer King and his GK Films, but not Fox or Disney, who acquired the studio and owns the shares. Bohemian Rhapsody in his great library. That’s because McCarten claims in his lawsuit that he entered into an agreement directly with King to receive 5% of GK’s proceeds. Eventually, King handed all of these businesses to Fox and now Disney. McCarten claims that transaction accounting definitions have changed and that he has not received a cent from his back yard deal and that King has not responded to his requests for payment.

It’s an issue that CAA representative McCarten and his lawyers at Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump Holley LLP want to see resolved with “monetary damages in an amount to be proven in court,” a full report on the film, and “a judicial declaration of the contract.” “Rights and obligations of the parties related to the writer’s agreement … “With this lawsuit, McCarten GK Films seeks to fulfill its obligation in the writer’s agreement,” said the 50-page filing in LA Superior Court on Wednesday , referring to the first of three contracts entered into In 2015, the author entered into a contract with the production company WAGW, Inc. for an “amount equal to 5% of 100% of the ‘net proceeds'” (read it here) .

Fox took on the Queen biopic in 2016, and the studio insists that McCarten is only entitled to profits based on their “Defined Net Proceeds” definition, and not under GK Films’ standard “Net Proceeds” definition , which is determined by good faith. negotiations have been changed.

Representatives from GK Films tell Deadline that they believe Fox/Disney should be involved in this action and will be in touch immediately to discuss future responses.

“Worse, it’s not even clear that GK Films ever had a standard definition of a motion picture,” says the filing from attorneys Dale Kinsella and his partner Nicholas Soltman. The lawsuit alleges that the parties did not intend to develop such a definition because they did not intend to use “computer.”[ing]’ and ‘determine[ing]”Net return at all.”

McCarten is one of the elite screenwriters of fact-based biographical pictures. Bohemian Rhapsody won the Oscar for Best Actor for Rami Malek and The theory of everything did the same for Eddie Redmayne and Darkest hour took the prize ahead of Gary Oldman. More recently, The two pause received nominations for its stars Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce. He has the Kasi Lemmons-directed Whitney Houston film in the works I want to dance with someone at Sony. He is the producer of this film. Historically, it was rare for writers to receive a gross salary unless they were also producers or directors. This makes them vulnerable to the network definition Eddie Murphy famously referred to as “monkey points” in a lawsuit against Paramount Come to America remains in the red despite revenue of $350 million. In an even more egregious example, Deadline released an earnings release from Warner Bros. revealed which claimed that despite the box office of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, the film earned $938 million, $167 million in the red layout.

According to the lawsuit, he expected one while McCarten negotiated his compensation for the film Come to America Scenario in which he now finds himself and believes that a solution has been agreed upon:

Relevant here: When he entered into the writer’s deal, McCarten was well aware of major studios’ reputation for pulling losses out of the clutches of profits – particularly by “defining” profits in a byzantine way and then arbitrarily burdensome administrative costs on the Pass distribution. fees, overheads, etc. At the same time, McCarten knew that independent producers such as GK Films were known to have financed $156 million to $170 million HugoAmong other mid- and big-budget projects, they offered slightly less upfront money than the big studios, but cheaper backend definitions. GK Films, in turn, made the reputation their own. For example, towards the end of negotiations, when McCarten was frustrated by the low flat fees that would serve as inspiration for the accompanying letter, he called Denis O’Sullivan, then a director at GK Films. O’Sullivan told McCarten: “The song is what it is, but Graham wants me to tell you, just like he did with Cameron Diaz.” Criminal organizations of New Yorkhe will take care of you successfully.

Not naive to the industry, McCarten understood what Graham was telling him and what he was saying
don’t tell him. “He” – Graham King, not Fox and not another studio – would make up for the low fixed costs by paying him on the back end. But only “with success”. With this in mind, it made perfect sense that the definition would be that of GK Films and the “net proceeds” would be that of GK Films. In short, McCarten was clear that GK Films’ “net proceeds” would actually be 5 percent of what GK Films earned from the film. The difference between GK Films’ actual and “net” revenue consists of home video royalties and unrecovered development costs. If available). And there is no doubt that GK Films’ definition of “net income” would be more favorable to him than a major studio’s definition of net profit.

Representatives for Disney, which acquired Fox’s assets and liabilities, did not respond to requests for comment.