The Hollywood Reporter has the exclusive:
“Remember Nanette Shipley? She’s the literary scout who claimed credit for discovering and helping a company called Maverick Films launch films, Twilight and The Lighting Thief. Now comes word that Shipley has demonstrated to a Los Angeles Superior Court judge that she is likely to prevail in her claims. As a result, the judge has granted Shipley’s request to freeze $100,000 of Maverick’s assets pending the outcome of the lawsuit.
As we reported in February, Shipley alleged that she helped Maverick find and obtain the rights to both motion pictures. She said she was promised $75,000 for her work in connection with Twilight and $100,000 for her work in connection with The Lighting Thief, and was owed all but $20,000 of the total amount.
According to the attorneys for both parties, a few days before a Superior Court hearing on the matter, Maverick sent over a $55,000 check to satisfy what was owed to Shipley for Twilight.”
This case should proved to be an interesting one as there are a lot of players involved here. Maverick has changed hands several times ( it was initially launched by Madonna of all people). More recently it underwent a name change and is now Imprint, a name you will find in Twilight film end credits. Maverick films obtained the rights to the production and then worked with Summit to actually get Twilight made, and now works with them under the Imprint moniker.
Summit isn’t directly involved in this one. Think of Maverick/Imprint like a subcontractor. Summit presumably thought Maverick had appropriately obtained all rights and paid its staff. In other words, call Summit the owner of a condo complex. Let’s say they need a new pool for the complex and they contract with some firm to do that. It’s that subcontracted firm’s responsibility so see that it’s workers are paid correctly, not the guy who owns the condo.
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