Lawsuit Filed Over James Caan’s Final Film, ‘Fast Charlie’
20.07.2022 - 07:03
/ deadline.com
Screenwriter Lee Goldberg is suing two production companies in a dispute over the late James Caan’s last film, the crime drama Fast Charlie.
Fast Charlie is director Phillip Noyce’s take on Victor Gischler’s Edgar Award-nominated novel Gun Monkeys. It centers on Charlie Swift (Pierce Brosnan), who has worked for aging mob boss Stan (Caan) for 20 years, skillfully operating as a prolific fixer and efficient hitman. When a rival boss moves to eliminate Stan and his entire team, he fails to get Charlie. Now on his own, Charlie will stop at nothing to avenge his friend, and has no plans to leave anyone alive.
Goldberg and his company, Adventures in Television, brought the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday against Boomtown Media Partners LLC and Fast Charlie Nola LLC, alleging breach of contract and seeking declaratory relief.
Representatives for the defendants could not be immediately reached.
Goldberg has written for Psych, Monk, Diagnosis Murder and Baywatch. He claims he entered a written contract in March 2021 with Boomtown Media to obtain the option to acquire the motion picture, television and ancillary rights to Gun Monkeys, a screenplay authored by Goldberg based on the Gischler’s novel of the same name.
All monies due Goldberg’s company were to be paid to Goldberg if a film was made based on Gun Monkeys along with credits in the main titles, home video packaging and other areas, according to the suit.
Goldberg believes Boomtown assigned its rights to Fast Charlie Nola, which in April 2022 began shooting Fast Charlie, a movie based on Gun Monkeys, but the plaintiff was not paid the agreed-upon purchase price or provided through his company the first opportunity to make any revisions to the script.
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