Producer Saul Zaentz no sooner finishes one court case before he's back at it again. This time Zaentz has launched a $20 million lawsuit against Walt Disney Company, including the Miramax Films unit, over profits from the 1996 drama The English Patient.Reuters reports that the famed producer of Lord of The Rings (1978), Amadeus, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest filed suit last Thursday at the Los Angeles Superior Court. Zaentz's suit accuses Disney and Miramax of failing to share the profits for the Oscar-winning drama. According to Zaentz's suit, "Like Enron, Tyco and WorldCom, Miramax has used fraudulent and unfair accounting and business practices to deprive (Saul Zaentz Co.) of its profit participation,". Miramax has claimed that they have yet to make back what it cost them to acquire, distribute and market the film, so according to them there are no profits.
Well, Zaentz must think 20 is his lucky number, as he sued and won for that exact same amount ($20 million, that is) in a 2005 lawsuit against New Line Cinema over profits from the Lord of the Rings films. Hopefully Zaentz has better luck with his lawsuit than he had keeping Peter Jackson on The Hobbit. Plus, something tells me Disney isn't going to like that Enron crack.
