The novelist who created the "Forrest Gump" character has a deal for a share of the movie profits, but the studio claims the fourth-highest-grossing film in history hasn't made any.
Now, author Winston Groom has hired the same lawyer who successfully represented Art Buchwald in a similar dispute with the studio.The film has raked in $661 million in worldwide ticket sales, but remained $62 million in the red as of Dec. 31, according to a Paramount Pictures memo disclosed this week by Forbes magazine.
"We're meeting with Paramount very soon," Groom's attorney, Pierce O'Donnell, told the Los Angeles Times.
"Groom would like to work this out amicably," O'Donnell said. "He believes strongly that this is an unfair method of accounting." Groom's deal was for $350,000 for rights to his book plus 3 percent of net profits.
The Times quoted unidentified studio sources as saying that "Gump," which won the Academy Award for best movie, is expected to turn a net profit. Paramount has already paid $3 million on other net-profit contracts.
The studio reportedly offered Groom a $250,000 "gift" payment. O'Donnell said Groom turned it down because he "thought it was too light."
Tom Hanks, who played Gump, and director Robert Zemeckis stand to make $30 million to $40 million each because they have "first-dollar" deals, with shares of box office receipts rather than net profits.