 Universal Pictures filed a lawsuit Monday against Mike Myers accusing him of breaching his contract to write, produce and star in "Dieter" (a k a "Sprockets"), a feature film based on a comedic character that Myers popularized during his stint on NBC's "Saturday Night Live." The Universal/Imagine Entertainment project, slated to start shooting in August with Bo Welch making his feature film directorial debut, was being targeted for a June 2001 release. Jack Black, Will Ferrell and David Hasselhoff signed on to co-star. Myers, who wrote the script for "Dieter" with Michael McCullers and Jack Handey, has script approval on the project. And while sources said Tuesday that Myers already had approved the "Dieter" script, Myers said Tuesday in a statement that he did not. The lawsuit claims that on May 30, during a meeting at Universal, Myers "announced that he was abandoning the project in midstream and was not going to honor his commitments to Universal." The suit seeks an unspecified amount for damages, which include expenses incurred in the development of the project as well as the studio's pay or play commitments for the co-stars. Myers' lawyers said the suit is without merit since Myers "has absolute script approval over the project and that the legal action constitutes an improper attempt by the studio to bully Myers into doing the movie at the cost and expense of Myers' career and artistic integrity." Read More... |
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