Justin Berfield Sued Over ‘Escobar’ Movie

Justin Berfield - Reese Justin Berfield is facing legal action over a planned movie about the life of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. Berfield and his company J2 Pictures are being sued by bosses at distribution firm Essential Entertainment – who claim they have been left $150,000 out of pocket after plans for the movie fell through.

The lawsuit, filed at Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that Essential Entertainment has been stuck with thousands of dollars of expenses after the film – which was to be directed by Oscar-winner Oliver Stone – was shelved, according to TMZ.com. Jason Felts, Justin’s partner in J2 Pictures said he was surprised and hadn’t done anything wrong.

The fate of the film seems unclear, but it does have a official website, but no real content.

Thanks to MalcolmFun & Tyno | Source: TMZ

November 25th, 2008 tjpeople About: Justin Berfield (Reese), The Cast

5 Comments Post a Comment

well that sucks.

I read the court documents linked, and this is what I got out of it (as a note, do not take any of this information as actual fact until either a ruling as been made, or both sides agree that that part of the information is accurate. Due to Justin and J2 being defendants, the information here is what the company suing is claiming)

Basically the company suing them, Essential Entertainment Media (which I believe is managing the selling of the distribution rights of the film) is saying Escobar can no longer be produced as it recently lost its director (due to moving on to direct other movies), has no present cast, and the proper financing to move forward with the film could not be secured by Justin Berfield, his company, or those involved in the project with Berfield. So according to Essential Entertainment the production entitled Escobar no longer exists, and that is a breach of the agreement between the production companies and Essential Entertainment.

So Essential Entertainment claims the production companies owe them at least $147,038 because it could not make delivery of the film Escobar possible.

However, in defense that J2 did nothing wrong, the co-producer that is working along with Justin, Jason Felts, had this to say (as quoted in the linked page):
"The recent claims brought by Essential Entertainment have come as quite a shock considering we were under the impression that they were acting as the foreign sales company for the picture. What is even more shocking is that they are naming parties and companies such as ours which are not even liable for any of their claims. Justin and I were brought on and hired as Producers on the project just like Oliver Stone. Further, I was under the impression that one had to actually do something wrong to get sued."

AlexTheMartian

someone willing to post this on Justin's board on Celebrity Loop? I am sort of burned out reading all those court documents.

AlexTheMartian

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexTheMartian

someone willing to post this on Justin's board on Celebrity Loop? I am sort of burned out reading all those court documents.

Hi Alex,

I'm sorry but this issue cannot be discussed on Justin's board at Celebrity Loop.

Ryebeach

Condensing all that down, I understand the complaint to be saying it was J2 and Berfield's job to secure or provide capital for the project. They did not and the project has failed and has no director or actors. The J2 response is that is not an accurate description of what thier role in the project was and they are not liable for the failure.

MalcolmFun

Former Malcolm in the Middle star Justin Berfield is facing legal action over a planned movie about the life of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.

Berfield and his company J2 Pictures are being sued by bosses at distribution firm Essential Entertainment - who claim they have been left $150,000 (GBP75,000) out of pocket after plans for the movie fell through.

The lawsuit, filed at Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that Essential Entertainment has been stuck with thousands of dollars of expenses after the film - which was to be directed by Oscar-winner Oliver Stone - was shelved, according to TMZ.com.

Berfield is however producing another movie to be released in 2009, An Invisible Sign of My Own.

Tyno