If you were allowed to watch the 1990’s tv miniseries on ABC of the Stephen King novel, “It,” then you were watching a Larry Sanitsky, and Frank Konigsberg produced the show. The two men had purchased the rights to the novel sometime in the ’80s. They are fighting in court now with Warner Brother’s over the sequels to the show, “It” and “It Chapter Two,” alleging the studio breached their contract. The contract gives them “exclusive executive producing rights and back-end participation and rights to involvement in any sequel, spin-off, or remake of the show.”
In the lawsuit, the men claim that they stopped receiving profits in 1995, and did not consult on the film adaptations. The 2017 film adaptation of the novel grossed $700 million worldwide, and by contract, Warner Bros. owes them 10% of profits on all remakes. But when the studio issued their first statement in March, the studio issued its first “participation statement” in 24 years; it showed that they were only going to pay out $1 million to the producers. Precipitating the claim that the studio is “substantially under reported profits and improperly withheld payments.”
Warner Bros. has not commented on this case.
– Excerpt from an article for Deadline by Gene Maddaus. Find the full article here.
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