Producers Roy Lee, Dan Lin and Doug Davison today launched their own lawsuit in the escalating legal war over the Godzilla reboot. The duo filed a suit against Legendary Pictures in LA Superior Court on Thursday, with the cross complaint alleging breach of contract among other counts (read it here). Seeking a jury trial and millions in damages, this latest legal action also names fellow Godzilla producer and Legendary President/CCO Jon Jashni as a defendant. Legendary’s Chairman and CEO Thomas Tull was not named in the suit. Today’s action comes in response to Legendary’s suit earlier this 
month to have Lee and Lin and fellow producer Davison removed from the movie with a $25,000 payout. An action that today’s cross complaint says came about only because the trio of producers were going to assert their claims to a project that that they say they brought to Legendary and that they developed. “By this action, Cross-Complainants seek a judicial declaration that the never-discussed arbitration provision in the unsigned draft agreement is not enforceable and that this dispute must be tried before a jury in the Los Angeles Superior Court. More importantly, Cross-Complainants seek substantial compensatory damages, in the millions of dollars, resulting from Legendary’s material breach of its agreement to pay them the fixed and contingent compensation to which they are contractually entitled. Cross-Complainants seek specific performance of Legendary’s agreement to accord them screen credit and allow them to participate in prequels, sequels, and remakes or, if such relief is unavailable, recovery of the substantial damages resulting from the loss of such credit and opportunities,” says today’s suit.
In their previous suit, Legendary alleges that the producers did not contribute much of note to Godzilla’s pre-production and that their services are no longer required. The company says the trio are only entitled to the $25,000 based on a March 2011 Producer Loan Agreement between them and the company. Lee, Lin and Davison disagree. Which is why Legendary, in their January 9th filing, also sought to have the courts order arbitration to halt any potential temporary restraining order against the film’s production that the company claims the producers threatened to launch if they weren’t more fully compensated. The new Godzilla is scheduled to be released by Warner Bros and Legendary on May 16 2014. Lee, Lin and Davison are represented by the law firm Liner Grode Stein Yankelevitz Sunshine Regenstreif & Taylor, LLP.
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You can fire a producer for not contributing???? good luck with that.
… Honesty, “not contributing” is the best thing a lot of producers can do for your project.
Terrific seeing they named Jashni in lawsuit here–we’ve had several dealings with him at my company, where he went against his promises time and again, our boss originally liked him but wouldn’t think of working at Legendary ever again.
The bitterness is strong with this one! “Our boss?” You’re clearly some unfortunate assistant attempting to sound cool by trying to repurpose a second-hand and untrue opinion. Stick to what you know and please only speak up if you have your own thoughts. Now, go get me a sandwich from Clementine.
Screw Godzilla. I’m more interested in seeing the dramatisation of this lawsuit. Who needs another CGI snorefest when you can have a Hollywood gorefest?
Legendary? Asian haters?
First GINO. Now this.
I’d trust Dan Lin out of all these hotshots. He’s a man of integrity.
this sounds like a perfect time for King Kong to swoop in!
I’ve worked with Lin and Davison. Both are stand-up guys. Terrible that Legendary is making them go through this.
Gangsta’ Squad.
-RnsW
If this interferes with my scheduled reboot start date I am going to stomp Warner Bros. and Legendary into the dirt and use my giant tail to sweep the wreckage of those buildings away. I will then use my atomic fire breath to destroy the Warner Bros. water tower and the parking lot will be flooded. When I am finished there I will stomp over to Disney and destroy them just for fun. Then I am going to destroy ABC and NBC. I will especially enjoy vaporizing Jay Leno with my atomic fire breath. I will let Jay drive away at high speed in one of his expensive cars but he won’t get out of the parking lot. I will enjoy killing Jay Leno.
Legendary has deep pockets but they’re unwise to pick a fight with Doug Davison. If common sense prevails they’ll settle, quietly.
I can remember it for you wholesale.
Jashni Mensch
Lee Claims he has rights and threatens people.
Davison left Lee so that should tell you.
Lin Mensch.
Tull on rich dude power trip.
Godzilla didn’t work already once.
The deciding factor is
Robinov- Big Lin Supporter, Warners distributes, tired of Legendary uppiteyness.
And the winner is-
????
Seconding the Jashni mensch comment!
Jashni and Tull are a pair of sleazy shysters. Everyone should take the time to read the entire lawsuit it’s shocking. They begged them to go to Japan and use their Asian contacts to get the rights from Toho. They promised them they would be “well taken care of” and now they pull this shit on them. Legendary is going to lose this lawsuit and I hope the guys take it to a jury instead of settling which Legendary will beg to do. They are going to lose more than what they owe on this with the punitive damages.
Jon Jashni has more integrity than most people in this business. I have worked with him several times over the years and have found him to be honest even when it didn’t work in his favor. Without knowing what happened here, I can assure you that what is written by Roy Lee (who is certainly not known for his honesty) and Dan Lin, should not be taken as the whole story.
There are no punitive damages in lawsuits for contractual breach.
Legendary should be ashamed of themsleves.
Oh please Big G! This shit didn’t go down with my remake. You’re all washed up! Now do what the rest of your kind did and go extinct. Let the mammals inherit.
Producers are watching this lawsuit very carefully. Unless you’re Jerry Bruckheimer, every studio tries to put in a Pay or Play clause that allows the studio to fire you and not pay you, without cause. Unless you have tremendous leverage, you generally have to sign such an agreement. Lawyers have advised clients for years that while this clause sucks for them, 99% of the time, a studio won’t exercise Pay or Play on them as it has a chilling effect for other producers (why bring a project to a studio with a history of screwing other producers?).
If you’re a producer bringing projects to these guys right now, do so at your own peril. We’ve certainly put Legendary on our “only if we have to submit there” list. My hope is that this settles quickly for the sake of all parties. It’s tough enough out there. Let’s try not to be scumbags. What do you say?
surprised to see this kind of greedy backtracking on an agreement. The producers will prevail on this, they have enough to show that there was an agreement that they moved forward with and acted in good faith upon.
This kind of stuff happens all the tine in the apparel industry, I’m surprised that they were so naive to go with a “trust me” before nailing down details.
Frankly, I am shocked that Legendary and Jon Jashni would try and lash out at two of the most admired and respect Asians in the film community. Full disclosure, I am an Asian in the film business and both Dan and Roy took my call and sat down with me even though I was a nobody. I would fall on my sword for either of them and if they had a problem with Legendary or Jashni, they now have a problem with me, for what that’s worth.
Truthfully – there are two sides to every story. After reading Lin and Company’s complaint their seems to be only one side of the story theirs and its sounds like Legendary is trying to ex them out of producing the movie.
My question is in disputes like this there is always a reason usually – the producers are assholes or they are lazy hang around do nothing types of they are create embarassments for the main company producing and dstributing the project.
In this case I have not heard one reason why they wanted these three out. Does anyone know the real reason I would love to know.