One of the subjects upon which the upcoming film “War Dogs” is based is suing Warner Bros., along with writer/director Todd Phillips and producer Bradley Cooper.
“War Dogs” is based on the true story of a pair of potheads, Efraim Diveroli and David Packouz, who become unlikely arms dealers when they win a $300 million contract from the government to supply America’s allies in Afghanistan with weapons. As one might guess, the situation spirals out of control and the two find themselves way out of their depths.
The screenplay is largely based on a 2011 Rolling Stone article and subsequent book by Guy Lawson, but Diveroli is now crying foul. In a suit filed in the U.S. District Court of Tampa, Florida, he claims that he has been unjustly impeded from telling his own life story.
Diveroli claims that Lawson continued contacting him after the initial article was published, while Diveroli was still serving time in a federal prison, about turning the article into a full-length book, which they would co-author.
Diveroli agreed, so long as Lawson kept the content confidential and included Diveroli in any discussions about selling the film rights, to which Lawson agreed, according to Diveroli. However, Lawson was listed as sole author when “Arms and the Dudes” was published in 2015.
Diveroli then formed his own company, Incarcerated Entertainment, and wrote a 360-plus page manuscript entitled “Once a Gunrunner…” in an effort to sell the movie rights to his life story.
The suit claims that Diveroli’s business partner, Ross Reback, reached out to the studio and offered to furnish them with a copy of the manuscript in order to discuss selling Diveroli’s life rights for the movie, upon which Phillips was already working based on the Rolling Stone article.
According to the suit, Diveroli and Reback were then contacted by producer Elliot Kahn and his business partner Simon Spira. Kahn and Spira were provided a copy of the manuscript, but Spira turned out to be the son of Warner Bros. executive Steven Spira.
The suit alleges that it was around this time when Phillips was doing rewrites on the “War Dogs” script and that Simon Spira could have easily passed the manuscript to his father to give to Phillips, thus giving him unauthorized access to it.
Diveroli is seeking damages and a jury trial for fraud and breach of a nondisclosure agreement in addition to a number of violations of other Florida laws.
Warner Bros. declined TheWrap’s request for comment.
“War Dogs,” starring Jonah Hill as Diveroli and Miles Teller as Packouz, will premiere on Aug. 19.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.