Horror Writer Chases Studio Profits

By Jean-Luc Renault
Daily Journal Staff Writer

LOS ANGELES – The author of the book “The Exorcist” and the ensuing screenplay for the original 1973 horror film sued Warner Bros. Entertainment, claiming the movie studio failed to properly share revenues and denied access to the film’s financial records despite the author’s co-ownership of the rights.
Writer William Blatty’s complaint, filed Friday in Los Angeles federal court, comes on the heels of two high-profile profit-participation lawsuits that recently resulted in large jury awards, including the $269 million award against the Walt Disney Co.
Blatty clashed with the studio previously over profits from the film, but the timing of his latest complaint and the nature of his claims suggests the two recent victories may have paved the way for other profit participants to seek legal recourse.
Represented by Eric George, a partner at Browne Woods George in Los Angeles, Blatty claimed in his complaint that Warner Bros. stonewalled his efforts to review the film’s finances.
The complaint stated Blatty was guaranteed 28 percent of the film’s net profits and the writer also co-owned the rights to the film with Warner Bros. in perpetuity.
“Instead of granting Blatty the immediate access to which he is entitled as a co-owner, defendant has asserted that Blatty must ‘get in line’ with profit participants in defendants’ other works who seek to audit defendant, but who do not share Blatty’s status as co-owner,” the complaint stated.
Blatty claimed the studio misrepresented the amount of money the film has earned and asked for below-market license fee rates from affiliated entities.
The complaint stated Warner Bros. has been “engaging in self-dealing, failing to allocate revenue fairly and otherwise failing to account properly to Blatty with respect to the substantial revenue the film has continued to generate.”
Blatty sued for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
The writer sought undisclosed damages and a declaration that he is entitled to review the film’s financial records as soon as possible, considering that he is 82 years old.
A spokesman from the studio declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Unique to Blatty’s latest complaint is the good faith claim, an allegation that helped a production company win a massive jury award in July against Disney over profits from the game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.”
The jury awarded the $269 million verdict to Celador International, which developed the show in England before selling it to Disney in 1999 for a mix of upfront payments and back-end compensation.
Celador, which was seeking between $200 million and $390 million, claimed Disney reached sweetheart deals with its television subsidiaries in bad faith that cut Celador out of hundreds of millions in potential revenues.
Celador was able to get the suit in front of a jury, which are known to be unsympathetic toward large studios, because its agreement with Disney was finalized before mandatory arbitration clauses became the norm in entertainment industry contracts over the past decade.
The lack of an arbitration clause also helped actor Don Johnson win a $23 million jury last July award in a case involving profits from his role on the show “Nash Bridges.”
Considering that “The Exorcist” was made decades before either of those two television shows, and that previous disputes involving the film have not gone to arbitration, Blatty could be banking that the case also might end up in front of a jury.
Warner Bros. has yet to respond to the case, which has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson.