Actor sues studio over pay in Brokeback backlash

ACTOR Randy Quaid has sued the studio and producers behind Brokeback Mountain for $10 million (€8.3m), saying he was underpaid for his supporting role in the acclaimed film about two cowboys who fall in love.

According to the lawsuit, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, producers tricked Quaid into appearing in the movie for what was "effectively a donation of his time" by "falsely representing it as a low-budget, art-house film with no prospect of making any money."

Quaid, 55, played the no-nonsense rancher who hires Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) to tend his sheep on a Wyoming mountain, where the two men end up in a secret love affair.

The lawsuit names Focus Features, a speciality studio of Universal Pictures, as well as Focus co-presidents James Schamus and David Linde. A Focus spokeswoman declined to comment on the suit.

The movie, which cost about $14m (€11.6m) to make, has grossed roughly $160m (€113m) at the box office worldwide.

Although Brokeback Mountain drew critical raves, many believed its box-office potential was limited because of its subject matter. But the film gained numerous honours, including eight Oscar nominations, as it crossed over to a mainstream audience.

Quaid said he agreed to appear in Brokeback Mountain for a nominal sum rather than his customary seven-figure fee plus a percentage of the box office gross because the filmmakers convinced him it was a low-budget picture with no commercial potential.

However, the suit claims that "from day one, defendants fully intended the film would not be made on a low budget, would be given a worldwide release and would be supported as the studio picture it always was secretly intended to be."

Moreover, the suit says, Linde obtained Universal's backing for "Brokeback" by presenting it to his studio bosses as a film "that was going to make money".