Randy Quaid
© AFP/Getty Images/File LOS ANGELES (AFP) - The star of "Midnight Express" and "Independence Day" claimed in his suit filed in Los Angeles on Thursday that producers falsely told him the movie would be "a low-budget, art house film, with no prospect of making any money."
But Taiwanese director Ang Lee's gay cowboy tale, that cost around 14 million dollars to make and stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, has become an Oscar-winning sensation, raking in 160 million dollars in global ticket sales.
Quaid, who played tough sheep rancher Joe Aguirre, said that by Hollywood standards, a low-budget movie budget cost beteen 500,000 dollars and seven million dollars.
But producers, including James Schamus, David Linde and Focus Features, had deliberately misled him into taking a low salary by falsely claiming that "everyone was making sacrifices" to get the controversial movie made.
"By virtue of the misrepresentations, (producers) have enriched themselves to the tune of approximately 160 million dollars in worldwide gross box office receipts on the back of actors who were convinced to cut their fees purportedly to ensure that the film reached the screen" the suit stated.
Quaid claimed that in 2004 he met Lee, who offered him a role, saying: "We can't pay anything, we have very little money, everyone is making a sacrifice to make this film," according to the suit.
Lee is not targeted by the action that seeks 10 million dollars in damages as well as punitive damages from Focus Features and other producers.
Quaid, 55, did not state how much he was paid to play Aguirre, who hires the pair of amorous cowboys, played by Ledger and Gyllenhaal, in the movie.
But he alleged that he had suffered a loss of at least 10 million dollars as a result of the producers alleged antics and that he "would never have agreed to allow (producers) to enrich themselves at his expense."
The suit also claims that producers "were engaged in a 'movie laundering' scheme designed to obtain the services of talent such as Randy Quaid on economically unfavorable art film terms."
Focus Features did not immediately return calls for comment on the legal challenge over the film that won three Oscars including best director on March 5.
© 2006 AFP. All rights of reproduction and distribution reserved. All information displayed on this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.