Merry Gentleman, LLC v. George & Leona Prods., Inc.

799 F.3d 827 (7th Cir. 2015)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P produced the motion picture The Merry Gentleman, which has some critical acclaim but was a resounding commercial flop. P blamed Michael Keaton (D), the film's lead actor and director, for the bust. P sued D for breach of contract. D was Keaton's 'loan-out company' that he uses for professional contracting. P claims that D violated his directing contract by (1) failing to prepare the first cut of the film in a timely fashion, (2) submitting a first cut that was incomplete, (3) submitting a revised cut that was not ready for the producers to watch, (4) communicating directly with officials at the Sundance Film Festival and threatening to boycott the festival if they did not accept his director's cut instead of the producers' preferred cut, (5) failing to cooperate with the producers during the post-production process, and (6) failing to promote the film adequately. D moved for summary judgment on the narrow ground that P had failed to produce sufficient evidence that his alleged breaches of the directing contract caused it damages. It was granted, and P appealed.