Veteran character actor Randy Quaid feels like he was taken advantage of by the "Brokeback Mountain" boys. The actor claims he took the "Brokeback" gig under the impression that it was a low-profile, low-budget indie flick, and that while most of the involved parties have earned some hefty paydays for their work, his contributions have been overlooked by the Focus accountants.
From an article in The Chicago Tribune: "Quaid filed a lawsuit Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court that alleges producers got him to work on the cheap by falsely claiming "Brokeback" was "a low-budget, art-house film, with no prospect of making any money."
"Yet from day one, defendants fully intended that the film would not be made on a low budget, would be given a worldwide release, and would be supported as the studio picture it always was secretly intended to be," the lawsuit says.
Quaid agreed to waive his usual seven-figure fee and share of gross profits in favor of a much smaller payment, the lawsuit claims. The suit doesn’t reveal the actual size of his "Brokeback" paycheck.
The lawsuit alleges intentional and negligent misrepresentation and seeks at least $10 million in damages. The suit contends that industry guilds define a low-budget film as having a budget of $500,000 to $7 million, but the budget for "Brokeback" was about $15 million."
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Although a long-ago Oscar nominee for his work in 1974’s "The Last Detail," Mr. Quaid has spent much of his career playing broad comedic goofballs, evidence of which can be found in flicks like "Independence Day," "Not Another Teen Movie," "The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle," and most of the "National Lampoon’s Vacation" movies.
