By In a rare case of corporate litigious brutality coinciding with good taste, MGM has filed a complaint against Jake LaMotta, the subject of Scorsese classic Raging Bull and its upcoming, unaffiliated, certain-to-be-worse sequel, Raging Bull II. The studio contends that, according to the rights acquisition of LaMotta’s original biography, it is entitled to first pass on any sequels before they’re sold elsewhere (and, villainously, on no better terms than what MGM was willing to offer).
“All of these business things, I don’t bother with it because I’m not capable, physically or mentally, because I don’t hear so good,” said the now ninety-year-old man in an interview with the New York Post, sympathetically.
The heir to LaMotta’s original writing partner, Peter Savage, has been fighting for the rights to the story for several years, currently on appeal. MGM, in addition to financial compensation for a bunch of made-up reasons, is seeking total injunction against the movie ever releasing, seemingly not satisfied with the fact that nobody will see it even if it is.
[via Hollywood Reporter]