So much for the Fury Road sequel ---- Miller sues WB

[biolumen]

George Miller sues Warner Bros over Mad Max earnings

More than two years after Mad Max: Fury Road became a worldwide hit - going on to win six Academy Awards - director George Miller is suing Hollywood studio Warner Bros over unpaid earnings.

Their falling out has been revealed in a Supreme Court of NSW ruling that the dispute between production company Kennedy Miller Mitchell and Warner Bros should be arbitrated here rather than in California.

The directors of the production company are Miller, whose stellar directing career includes two Happy Feet movies and the Mad Max series, and his longtime producing partner Doug Mitchell.

It's a dispute that seems to show why Miller is yet to make two more long-planned Mad Max movies.

He famously overcame more than a decade of setbacks to make the fourth movie in the action series, including three major delays, three actors down to play Max - Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger then Tom Hardy - then having to switch the gruelling shoot from Australia to Namibia.

But Fury Road was released to near unanimous critical acclaim and took $US378 million ($492 million) at the worldwide box office before triumphing at the Oscars.

Justice David Hammerschlag said the agreement to make Fury Road included a condition that Kennedy Miller Mitchell would receive a $US7 million bonus if "the final net cost" of the movie was not more than $US157 million, after certain costs were excluded from calculations.

And that if Warner Bros intended to seek another co-financier, it would first offer Kennedy Miller Mitchell the chance to provide finance.

The production company started court proceedings against the studio over unpaid earnings in September.

"On [Warner Bros'] calculations, Mad Max went over budget," Justice Hammerschlag said. "If these calculations are right, [Kennedy Miller Mitchell] does not get a bonus.

"[But the production company] claims [Warner Bros] made a series of decisions which caused substantial changes and delays to Mad Max, which led to additional costs and expenses and that [the studio] wrongly took them into account in its over-budget calculation.

"If those costs are left out of account [Kennedy Miller Mitchell] says that Mad Max came in under budget."

The production company also claimed Warner Bros entered into a co-financing agreement with RatPac Entertainment, then run by James Packer and Brett Ratner, for 12.5 per cent of the movie's funding - breaching the agreement to give Kennedy Miller Mitchell first offer.

The production company also brought a claim against Warner Bros for "misleading and deceptive conduct" for not informing it that additional costs due to the studio's changes and delays would be included in budget calculations.

While Warner Bros argued that NSW was "a clearly inappropriate forum" to arbitrate the dispute, Justice Hammerschlag disagreed.

Miller and Mitchell told Fairfax Media they were disappointed that "after all the hard work and success of the film, the studio failed to honour its obligations" to them.

"Simply put, we are owed substantial earnings for diligent and painstaking work which spanned over 10 years in development of the script and preparation and three years in production of the movie," they said. "That hard work resulted in a picture which found wide acclaim globally ...

"We would much prefer to be making movies with Warner Bros than litigating with them but, after trying for over a year, we were unable to reach a satisfactory resolution and have now had to resort to a law suit to sort things out."

Last month Miller put the historic art deco Metro theatre in Potts Point, his headquarters for more than 30 years, on the market with expectations of selling for $20 million.

http://www.begadistrictnews.com.au/stor ... ngs/?cs=36

[Taipan]

I've been following Miller's relationship with WB for 2 years now and the more I found out the less I am surprised now that this is how it all ended up.
Some of my sources told me way back that the movie was way over budget, around 400mil total and that the intention to shoot in Broken Hill was genuine but later became something .... should I say "questionable" after Miller shifted focus to finishing Happy Feet 2 while he was 'waiting for the landscape to become a desert again'. 18 months of waiting. I'll just put it bluntly - some of the things I heard informed me that Fury Road was not going to be filmed in Broken Hill at all.
The studio tanked a lot of money building the infrastructure in NSW from 2009 to 2011. There were some interesting dealings with the local government to give the impression that the production is moving forward, but it really went nowhere.

As soon as WB realized the movie is not going to happen in Broken Hill, and yet another truckload of money was gone, they took away the video game and the anime from Miller.Both of those things are extremely important in all this because they distinctly show what WB was willing to do with their share of rights to Mad Max .... should I say... extremely recklessly.

As for WB's claim of the production being over budget - I think I might have to side with them, as much as I don't agree with how they're treating the franchise. They invested in that movie 3 times, 2 of which were money lost.

I think at this point the whole debacle seems to be over how much money was invested in Fury Road really, what happened in Broken Hill and the rights to the franchise. Miller has been fighting with WB over those things shortly after the Oscars if I remember correctly.

[biolumen]

"We would much prefer to be making movies with Warner Bros than litigating with them..."

It's sad to think this spat over $7 million is keeping Miller from making more movies with WB, even if it isn't a FR sequel.

That said, he has a history with other studios. Lorenzo's Oil, Babe and Babe: Pig in the City were made at Universal, and the first try at making Fury Road with Mel was being made at 20th Century Fox. So perhaps he'll move elsewhere.

[Copwatch]

If I'm correct, WB only owns the distribution rights to the franchise, right?

[rustycarr]

Can Miller make MM movies without warner at this point and can warner make MM movies without Miller?

[RobThom]

"and the rights to the franchise..."

Hmm?

But it sure is strange that somehow Miller doesn't seem to have any money?
He's selling that building and he's going to the mattresses for 7 mil?
7 mil isn't much in hollywood money.

And all those happy feet movies were hits.

Is Miller good with money?
Becasue he was able to do SOOO much in the first 2 Mad Max movies without it.
But some people might not be good with it if they've got it or access to it.

[henry2]

So is this lawsuit gonna go on forever? I can't wait for Miller's next film!

[biolumen]

Bitter court battle over Mad Max: Fury Road blocks two new movies

By Garry Maddox
15 April 2018 — 12:00am

Is it the end of the road for Mad Max?

One of the country's most acclaimed filmmakers, George Miller, is locked in a bitter court battle with Hollywood studio Warner Bros that threatens plans to make two more movies in the celebrated action series.

Three years after the fourth Mad Max movie was released to widespread acclaim - nominated for 10 Oscars including best picture and director and winning six - the director's production company, Kennedy Miller Mitchell, has claimed in a document filed in the Supreme Court of NSW that the studio acted in a "high-handed, insulting or reprehensible" manner.

And by "destroying" the relationship of trust by allegedly refusing to pay a bonus for delivering the movie under budget and breaching a co-financing agreement, they were unable to work together to make any further instalments.

To the delight of fans, Miller has long had scripts for Mad Max 5 and 6 ready to shoot.

But with his production company suing Warner Bros for unpaid earnings from Fury Road, they are now mired in litigation.

The falling out emerged in a Supreme Court of NSW ruling late last year that the dispute should be heard here rather than in California.

Despite all the acclaim for Fury Road, documents filed in the case suggest extended conflict over the budget and what scenes should be shot, including the ending.

Both sides have different views of the "final net cost" of the movie, the key factor in whether Kennedy Miller Mitchell is eligible for a $US7 million ($9 million) bonus for making the movie under the agreed budget of $US157 million and a share of proceeds.

The production company has claimed Fury Road cost $US154.6 million; the studio claimed it blew out to $US185.1 million.

Warner Bros alleged that instead of a 120-minute movie that was rated R in the US - MA 15+ in Australia - the contract required the company to make a 100-minute movie that was rated no harder than PG-13.

And Kennedy Miller Mitchell claimed it only found out that Warner Bros had brought on the James Packer-Brett Ratner-founded Ratpac and Dune Entertainment as co-financiers when it was directed to give an executive producer credit to Steven Mnuchin, now the US Secretary of the Treasury in the Trump administration.

By any measure, Fury Road was a brutally difficult movie to shoot. After extended heavy rain around Broken Hill, Miller and producer Doug Mitchell had to take their cast, crew and vehicles to South Africa and Namibia in 2012.

In the court documents, their company has claimed:

• Warner Bros insisted certain scenes in the script not be shot - including those around Immortan Joe's Citadel - with new scenes instead and a new ending.

• When Miller had a so-called "rough cut" of the movie, the studio made a series of decisions that caused "substantial changes and delays" to the production, including that the previously cut scenes and new ones be shot.

• The studio directed there be at least 10 screenings of Fury Road and, after each one, requested further changes.

• Warner Bros later approved a plan to shoot additional scenes costing $US31 million in late 2013, which required shipping vehicles back to Australia, reassembling the main cast and crew, re-creating an African set and extra post-production. And that these costs were to be excluded from the net cost of the movie.

• The studio arranged for Ratpac-Dune Entertainment to co-finance the movie despite being contractually required to offer Kennedy Miller Mitchell the first opportunity if it was required.

In a cross-claim, Warner Bros alleged:

• Fury Road "significantly exceeded the approved budget", with the extra costs largely caused by the production company, without the studio's written approval.

• Production was delayed and costs had escalated during filming in 2012 to the point where, without the changes sought by the studio, the movie could not be completed on schedule for the approved budget.

• The studio requested an alternative ending rather than insisting on it.

• Kennedy Miller Mitchell agreed to fund some of the additional filming in 2013.

• The release date was ultimately delayed by 14 months and the cost of production increased by $US31 million to $US185.1 million.

Miller was in a philosophical mood when he spoke about his career to students at NIDA on Thursday night, reflecting on the directors who had influenced him most (Buster Keaton and Alfred Hitchcock) and what Jack Nicholson taught him about working with studios when they made The Witches of Eastwick together ("they mistake politeness for weakness; you've got to make them think you're crazy").

Afterwards, the Oscar-winning director said he had used the time since Fury Road's release to get a range of scripts ready to shoot. "There are a lot of options," he said. "I'm not sitting around grinding my teeth."

On whether fans would ever get to see the next two Mad Max movies, Miller said he honestly did not know. "They're there but that's all I can say," he said. "That's in the future."

Warner Bros has appealed the decision that the case should be heard in NSW and a judgment is pending.

https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/mo ... 4z98o.html

[Morrisminor]

This story came out this week too. http://collider.com/brett-ratner-warner-bros-deal-over/
Rat-Pacs finances are tied into Fury Road so here's hoping that their ouster is a move to helping resolution. I find it odd that Warner's would hold up production for $7 million considering the guaranteed huge box-office returns they could get from the franchise. They've blown ten times as much cash on other garbage projects. I cannot but help think that Warners are trying some subtle coup to push out KMM and have total control of the series.

[henry2]

Why the hell is this lawsuit going on so long, can't Warner Bros. just give Miller what he deserves? $7 million is nothing to Warner Bros.! :roll:Miller has to direct more MAD MAX films!