The screenwriter of Copshop is suing his management company over an alleged breach of contract. Kurt McLeod wrote the Joe Carnahan-directed action-thriller Copshot, a riveting shoot-em-up released in 2021. Although this is McLeod's first full feature film writing credit, Carnahan is a veteran of the big screen with notable films such as Narc, Smokin' Aces, and the recent sci-fi hit Boss Level under his belt.
Copshop stars Frank Grillo as a con artist named Teddy Muretto who, in an attempt to escape a bounty on his head, allows himself to be arrested by rookie cop Valerie Young, played by Watchmen's Alexis Crouder. Held at a small local police station, Muretto is targeted by multiple hitmen including Bob Viddick, played by 300's Gerard Butler. Similar to John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, the poorly staffed police station becomes a bullet-ridden battleground as hitmen, a rookie cop, and Grillo's con artist cross fire.
THR reports McLeod is now suing Zero Gravity Management, his agency at the time, for breach of contract. The complaint alleges that during McLeod's time with the company, his managers, Eric and Mark Williams, rarely served their client's best interests, causing McLeod damages in excess of one million dollars. In 2020, the managers negotiated an option agreement with production company Sculptor Media LLC, which set McLeod's screenwriting fee as 2.5% of the film's proposed budget with a cap at $125,000. The complaint argues that the Williams brothers withheld the true budget of Copshop, convincing McLeod that the cap on his fee was "reasonable" for the purpose of accumulating more money for themselves as producers. The official complaint states that:
"This was a misrepresentation and a concealment by ZGM and the Williams brothers because they knew at the time that the budget for the film would be in an amount that the cap of $125,000 was many times less than he was entitled to earn."
McLeod also argues that ZGM manager Mark Williams was improperly attributed writing credit on the film. claiming that the original screenplay was solely written by himself. McLeod brought the concern to WGA arbitration and learned that Williams wrote an "outline" without his client's knowledge and then sent it to the production company as official proof of authorship. Incidentally, this is not the first time Mark Williams was sued over a writer's credit. In March of 2021, the Ozark co-creator was brought to court by screenwriter Nick May - another first-time feature film writer - over credit for the Liam Neeson film Blacklight.
The Copshop dispute is yet another blemish for Hollywood's treatment of screenwriters, which has had a troubled history of writing credit and monetary disputes. "Hollywood accounting" is well known for turning a substantial profit into a loss, oftentimes meaning writers, whose deals should allow them to earn additional money on their films' profits, see no further financial return. In 2019, Men In Black screenwriter Ed Solomon took to Twitter to announce that his 1997 summer sci-fi blockbuster starring Will Smith had apparently somehow yet to turn a profit despite grossing $589 million dollars on a $90 million dollar budget. Without significant change to the way Hollywood runs their business, arbitration and lawsuits will continue to be unfortunately commonplace.
Source: THR
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