The investors of the Matthew McConaughey AIDS drama “Dallas Buyers Club” have filed suit in Texas against Voltage Pictures and its CEO Nicolas Chartier, TheWrap has learned via legal documents.
Texas-based Truth Entertainment alleges that Voltage owes them money from the film’s $55 million haul at the foreign box office, citing fraud and breach of contract. Truth Entertainment is seeking a jury trial to determine damages.
Truth CEO Joe Newcomb, who is credited as an executive producer of “Dallas Buyers Club,” said that Voltage refused to provide or misrepresented details of its approximately 30 foreign distribution deals, including minimum guarantee figures, according to the legal papers. The plaintiffs are new to Hollywood and demand to see accounting statements from Voltage and its distributors.
Truth Entertainment came aboard “Dallas Buyers Club” just weeks before the film started shooting after it lost one of its initial investors. Truth contributed more than $1.6 million and expected a 15-20 percent return on its investment as well as 35 percent of all backend net proceeds. Truth made its money back as well as backend from the U.S. gross but claims it hasn’t received any money from the foreign box office.
Focus Features distributed “Dallas Buyers Club” in the U.S. and the Universal-owned label is not named as a defendant in the 11-page complaint.
Voltage has found itself in similar legal circumstances before but they haven’t prevented the company from moving forward.
(Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.)