Jeste li culi da je Jon Landis (reziser Thriller i Black or White) tuzio Majkla za neisplaceni procenat za spot Thiller i sve sto ima dodirnih tacaka sa tim projektom, za zadnje cetiri godine. Evo clanka:
Michael Jackson has been hit with a breach-of-contract lawsuit by John Landis,who has not been paid his share of profits from the “Thriller” video in the last four years. The suit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court last week Read full complaint here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/11447284/Complaint This lawsuit comes just ahead of the news that “Thriller” will be coming to Broadway. Producer James Nederlander said he acquired the rights to do so on Monday.It is unknown if this lawsuit also covers the “Thriller stage show, which has played around Europe. John Landis and his company Levitsky Productions filed a complaint in the western district of Los Angeles Superior Court last Wednesday. Landis is accusing Michael Jackson of “fraudulent, malicious and oppressive conduct" – essentially, failing to provide any accounting of the “Thriller” profits for the past four years "and earlier", and failing to pay Landis his 50 per cent cut of the net proceeds.” A contract signed at the time states clearly that Jackson and his company, Optimum Productions, would pay Landis 50 per cent of net profits from both the video and the documentary, and also provide regular financial statements on revenues – quarterly in the first instance, and then yearly from 1986 on.
Landis's attorney, Miles Feldman of Liner Yankelevitz Sunshine & Regenstreif, said it was the closest thing he could imagine to an open and shut case. "I can't understand what they are doing to John Landis' company. It is such a straight ahead thing," Feldman said. "It makes no sense at all to me."
The contract includes rights to dramatic and musical works, but the extent to which any show is based on the video, as opposed to Jackson's music, may be open to interpretation -- or negotiation.
The Landis suit probably does not involve a huge amount of money – the complaint does not assert a dollar figure, but the debt is not believed to be more than about $1 million, even taking into account last year's successful 25th anniversary re-issue of the Thriller album and the new-found popularity of the video on YouTube. It does, however, raise some singularly troubling questions about the way his affairs are being handled.
Neither Feldman nor the lawyer listed by the state of California as the last known agent for Optimum Productions, Zia Modabber of Century City, said they had any clue who was now providing legal representation for the superstar. Optimum Productions suspended its operations an unknown number of years ago – possibly as far back as the 1990s. According to the complaint, it "failed to observe corporate formalities" including basic record-keeping; Jackson was the sole shareholder and "commingled his funds with those of Optimum".
Tuzbe se nizu a albuma nigde.