Smallville - Producers sue Warner Brothers and CW - TV-News - EZTV

Monday 28th of May 2012 23:30:16 EST

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Smallville - Producers sue Warner Brothers and CW	Smallville	Login to vote
"Smallville" creators/executive producers Miles Miller and Alfred Gough and series co-producer Tollin/Robbins Prods. are throwing some kryptonite at their relationship with Warner Bros. TV, the studio behind the long-running sci-fi series, and with the CW, the network that recently renewed the show for a 10th season. Miller, Gough and Tollin/Robbins Prods. on Friday filed a breach of contract and fiduciary duty lawsuit against Time Warner and its divisions -- WBTV, Warner Bros. Domestic TV Distribution, the now-defunct WB network, where the show started -- and the CW, a co-venture with CBS. In the profit participation complaint, the producers accuse the Time Warner divisions of "self-dealing," claiming the WBTV made license fee deals with the WB and then the CW that "were not arms-length." "Warner Bros.' practices of unfair self-dealing include licensing the series for broadcast on its own affiliated WB and CW networks for unreasonably low, below-market license fees, resulting in lower gross revenues for the series and less compensation for plaintiffs, and failing to renegotiate the series' license fee to cover its production cost," the suit claims. In the breach-of-contract portion of the complaint, the producers claim that Warner Bros. sold "Smallville" in foreign markets "lumped it in with several other, less successful shows" in a package, and that, in allocating individual license fees to the series afterwards, "several series that are less popular than 'Smallville' were allocated a higher per-episode fee than 'Smallville' " and that "Smallville's" allocation was "well below the value of the series in the foreign markets." Additionally the suit claims that Warner Bros. improperly withheld foreign taxes to the tune of $3.3 million, improperly reported production costs that resulted in $4 million in withheld revenue, didn't pursue or did not report savings from the Canadian tax credit stemming from the fact that "Smallville" is produced in Canada and thwarted plaintiffs' audit attempts. As a whole, the producers accuse the Time Warner divisions of "depriving them of compensation to which they are entitled ... by failing to maximize profits from the series, all to the benefit of the vertically-integrated conglomerate Time Warner," and are looking to recover "millions of dollars" of unpaid compensation. Warner Bros. had no comment on the lawsuit, which was filed by attorney Michael Kump. Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/

Written by: mpq-eztv [27th Mar 10, 21:28]