The headline might be a little more ambiguous than needed: Tommy Lee Jones is suing Paramount for $10 million dollars he is still owed for his role in No Country For Old Men.
From the San Antonio Express-News:
In the lawsuit, Jones claims he signed a contract with N.M. Classics on April 3, 2006, agreeing to act in the film, as well as to provide “additional related services” for the movie’s promotion. In exchange, the lawsuit says the company promised to pay Jones a fixed “up-front” fee and, depending upon the film’s financial success, “significant box-office bonuses and ‘back-end’ compensation.”
Those pledged to be “significant,” according to the lawsuit, because they were supposed to compensate for Jones’ reduced up-front fee. “No Country for Old Men” later went on to win four Academy awards, including “Best Picture,” two Golden Globe awards, and several other critical recognitions. It was a giant commercial success, making more than $160 million.
The report claims that Jones was promised the same back-end deals as producer Scott Rudin and the Cohens themselves, including the percentage on the back-end box office bonus. But, in December 2007, Paramount representatives told him that the contract supposedly contained a “mistake,” regarding “a major issue involving the deduction for home video expenses.” A few weeks later, on January 10th, Paramount informed Jones of a second “mistake” regarding the box-office-bonus formula. This has lead Jones to claim that her was fraudulently forced to work under a contract that Paramount knew was full of errors, but the studio neglected to tell him what they already knew until after the film’s release.
Tommy Lee Jones thinks he’s out at least $10 million dollars, but as asked that an independent auditor look at Paramount’s books to see how much he is owed.
We think that actors should get paid what they sign on for, but – in hindsight – couldn’t the Cohens have pieced together a lot of The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada to make Sheriff Ed Tom Bell?
We always thought the two characters were eerily similar.
