There has been and will continue to be many COVID-related lawsuits in the entertainment industry. Here’s a new one that will buy a couple of producers some time — one way or the other.
The suit focuses on rights to remake The Blob, the cult B-film from 1958. Producers Richard Saperstein (Cell, Frequency, The Mist) and Brian Witten (Wedding Singer, American History X) say they’ve spent more than $418,000 developing their project since acquiring an option to the sci-fi classic back in 2009. After 12 years, they still need more time, but they’re having a hard time getting it from Worldwide Entertainment Corporation, run by Judith Harris, whose late husband ran the indie studio responsible for the original.
In Los Angeles Superior Court, Saperstein and Witten are now suing to retain rights. They claim that Harris orally agreed to an extension and then failed to put it in writing despite multiple emails and even a $50,000 offer.
And if a judge doesn’t recognize this as an oral agreement, they are falling back on the claim that COVID-19 represents a force majeure event that “prevented them from attempting to produce the Picture, and as a result, the Extension term must be tolled through the present date.”
