I’m a big fan of Randy Quaid. The man just brings so much pure character to every role he plays. Sometimes outrageously silly, sometimes deadly serious, the man seemingly always delivers. The same is true of his performance in Brokeback Mountain.
However, all is not smiles and giggles in Brokeback land. Randy Quaid is suing the producers of the film alleging that they engaged in “intentional and negligent misrepresentation”. What’s the problem? The good folks over at the USA Today give us this:
Quaid filed a lawsuit Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging the producers got him to work cheap by falsely claiming the movie was “a low-budget, art house film, with no prospect of making any money.”
“Yet from day one, defendants fully intended that the film would not be made on a low budget, would be given a worldwide release, and would be supported as the studio picture it always was secretly intended to be,” the lawsuit says. Quaid agreed to waive his usual seven-figure fee and share of gross profits in favor of a much smaller payment, the suit claims, although it doesn’t say how much he was paid.
The story goes on to say that Quaid is seeking… are you ready for this… $10 million in damages. Yikes!
I’m of two minds on this issue. On the one hand, Randy suffered no damage from this. It’s not as if he had to work harder because the film did well and got a wide release. Randy agreed (under whatever circumstances) to do a job for a certain amount of money. He did the job, got paid what was agreed, and that should be the end of it. HOWEVER…
On the other hand I can sort of see where Quaid is coming from. If he took a huge paycut as a favour to the producers under the impression that the film was going to cost much less to make and not get big studio backing or release… and THEN he finds out it cost more to make and got the big studio treatment… then maybe I’d be ticked off too.
I’m not sure what the answer is to this one… the only thing that is certain is that this is going to get messy and it’s not going away anytime soon. What do you think? Should Quaid get more cash?
