61 years old Mel Gibson has sued Voltage Pictures for not honouring the deal they had for producing his ambitious project, ‘The professor and the Madman.’ Bruce Davey, the producer partner of Mel Gibson has reportedly been working on this project for over 20 years.
According to a leading online portal, the Gibson and Bruce signed a co-production deal with Voltage Pictures through their company Icon Productions to make the film in 2015 and the film was planned to release later this year.
In the filed lawsuit, Gibson claims that Voltage failed to present the final budget of the film and even refused to allow the reshoots of some crucial scenes in the film.m Gibson also claimed that Voltage Pictures screened an unapproved cut of the film at Cannes film festival.
“The Agreements require that things such as material changes to the screenplay, change of director from Mr Safinia to someone else, the final production budget and schedule, and selection of filming locations be agreed to by Icon and Mr Gibson,” Jeffery McFarland, Gibson’s attorney wrote in the complaint. “Further, as extra insurance that his vision of the film was protected, Mr Gibson has the right, if necessary, to select the final cut of the film that is released between a cut prepared by Mr Safinia and a cut prepared by Voltage.” he added.
The film is based on the Simon Winchester’s book which tells about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, Gibson plays the professor, James Murray, who oversaw the creation of the dictionary, while Sean Penn was supposed to portray the madman in the film.
