Tommy Lee Jones Sues Over No Country for Old Men
With The Coen Brothers’ new movie Burn After Reading set to hit theatres this weekend, it looks like their Oscar-winning previous film No Country for Old Men is being hit with a lawsuit. Star Tommy Lee Jones is reportedly suing the film’s producers, claiming that he was not paid in full for his services. He says he was promised “significant box-office bonuses” that would depend on the success of the film, and now that it has made over $160 million, he is still waiting for over $10 million to be paid out to him.
This certainly isn’t the first we’ve heard of these kinds of lawsuits, but it does seem ironic that they happen quite frequently with the art house flicks that go on to become commercial hits. (The same thing happened with Brokeback Mountain, for example.) It just goes to show that everyone’s in it for the art, right up until the movie happens to rake in more money than they expected. I’m not sure if Tommy Lee Jones actually has a case here, but it does come across as a little bit greedy. Hey, maybe they should just greenlight a sequel (or prequel!) to make up the extra coin.
Comments (5)
If someone agrees to pay you a percentage of the boxoffice earnings, why is it greedy to expect to be paid the money that had been promised you. If anything I think the producers come off looking greedy for not forking over the cash they had agreed to in the first place.
Posted by Connor G on September 8th, 2008Haha you said coin friendo.
Posted by Aaron on September 9th, 2008Yeah, I mean maybe Tommy Lee Jones didn’t want to waste some of his quickly-decreasing time on earth on a fluff piece like this instead of something substantial, and only did it because they promised him good coin. And they put his face all over all the advertising and stuff. And how is he greedy? He should make 10 million less, so that Warner Bros. can make 10 million more? Seriously, people should get what they are promised.
Posted by Henrik on September 9th, 2008Actors might seem like they’re over paid but look how much money these movies bring in after rentals and DVD sales. Tommy Lee Jones could do a sequel but there won’t be one. His character Sherrif Bell could have planned to walked away with the money and retire. But after seeing the vent open and knowing Anton Chigurh was after him, his character could head for the hills to face the killer with better odds (on horseback and on terrain Bell was more famliar with). Plus you could have the mob or whom ever hired Chigurh (maybe C.I.A) to retreive the money, could send a hit squad to take him out and bring back the money. You would have Bell fighting while running through the back country and small towns old school western style (pleading for help and trying to hire people to help him get away or kill Chigurh). And Chigurh would have to deal with young hitmen trying to make a name for themselves by killing the unstoppable psychopath. It wouldn’t even matter who survives at the end if any one of them survives at all. Although if Chigurh was to kill all the hitmen and finally Bell only to get bushwacked in a poor small craphole town that he stumbles into half dead, after his long and bloody battle. I would call it a better ending than the first. // You’ll need a good imagination to make up the sequel in your head and plenty of time for daydreaming. Because the Cohen Bro’s don’t do sequels. Maybe pester the author of the book to write a sequel and you never know?\\
Posted by OldFart on June 15th, 2009This movie was made for a sequel. It ends with a killer getting away. You want to know what happens to the killer.
Posted by Charles Dingledine on July 5th, 2009Leave a Reply