Neal Moritz, the permanent producer of the extremely successful The Fast and The Furious films, is taking studio Universal to court.
Moritz claims that he should be mentioned as a producer in the credits of a spin-off that is in the making, writes The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday.
It is a film about the relationship between the characters Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham).
The film Hobbs & Shaw is currently being played and has to premiere this summer. Moritz states that he has mentioned the idea for the spin-off during the production of The Fast and The Furious 8 at Universal.
Moritz could share in revenues Hobbs & Shaw
The boss of Universal, Jimmy Horowitz, would have promised Moritz that he would be called. This means that he could also share in the proceeds of the film. However, it was an oral agreement.
The producer worked on the project for 1.5 years, developed the scenario and was involved in casting and locating.
But when Universal submitted a written agreement to Moritz in the course of this process, the conditions and agreements turned out to have changed.
Universal had also changed a clause in the contract, which offered Moritz the guarantee that he would be paid if he was removed from the project.
Universal does not feel obliged to involve Moritz
This summer, the parties negotiated further about the contract. According to Moritz, the discussions struck when Universal suddenly announced in September that they were in no way obliged to involve or contract them with the project.
That is why Moritz is now going to court. Universal has not yet responded to the charges filed by the “The Fast and The Furious” producer at the court.