'Chicago' Producer Suspicious That $10 Million 'Jazz Hands' Budget Drawn From His Cut Of Profits
A producer of Chicago—the swansong of Miramax's heyday, when the Weinsteins would throw enough blinding sequins, stars and money at audiences and Academy voters to distract them long enough to scoop up all the Oscars—is suing the studio for cheating him out of what he claims is $10 million in his share of the profits:
The producer of the smash hit musical film "Chicago" contends some razzle-dazzle Hollywood accounting has left him shortchanged by $10 million, according to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
He claims the financial statements he receives from Miramax are "omissive, false and misleading" because they understate revenue from video and DVD sales and foreign release, while overstating overhead. Richards produced the original Broadway production of "Chicago" in 1975 and bought the film rights for $505,000. According to the suit, he has received at least $500,000 in producing fees from Miramax.
Richards may have a difficult road ahead of him if he plans on proving to the court that Weinstein-era Miramax was "overstating overhead." After all, this was a company whose financial model could be best summed up by their motto "How much of Disney's money can we spend today?" It's more than likely the producer's missing $10 mil was squandered on promotional extravagances easily obscured in the promotional budget, such as that year's Oscar party buffet, replete with truffle-and-tropical-fruit sculptures in the shape of Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones doing the Charleston.
