Hollywood directors Joel and Ethan Coen called Oscar-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones ”the real thing” when they gave him a leading role in their 2007 blockbuster No Country for Old Men.
As a gritty Texas sheriff on the trail of a mass murderer, Jones delivered a memorable performance that helped the film receive four Academy awards, including best picture, and more than $160-million at the box office worldwide.
Now, in a move likely to prompt studio lawyers to re-examine the contracts of many of Tinsel Town’s leading actors, Jones is claiming a greater share of the film’s profits.
The 61-year-old actor has filed a $10-million lawsuit against production powerhouse Paramount Pictures for promised bonuses he says he was never paid when the film became a runaway success.
Jones, whose own Oscar success came as a supporting actor in the 1993 film The Fugitive, is making no public comment about the lawsuit filed in Bexar County, Texas. ”The paperwork stands for itself,” said Jennifer Allen, a spokesperson for the actor.
But court papers show that Jones claims he took a reduced fee prior to filming in exchange for ”significant box-office bonuses”, and was promised other financial incentives that were not paid due to errors in his contract that were never corrected.
Paramount, and its Holland-based subsidiary NM Classics, also named in the lawsuit, has yet to respond.
The Coen brothers wanted Jones for the role of Sheriff Ed Tom Bell in their big-screen adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s crime novel because they said his Texas background made him a convincing character.
The plot features a botched drug deal and Bell’s subsequent pursuit of assassin Anton Chigurh, a role that won a best supporting actor Oscar for Javier Bardem.
”There are just very, very few people who can carry a role like this one,” Joel Coen said of Jones.
”He’s from San Saba, Texas, not far from where the movie takes place. He’s the real thing regarding that region.”
The actor’s contract to appear in the film was signed with NM Classics in April 2006, according to the lawsuit, and it promised additional ”back-end compensation” for post-filming promotional work.
It claims that Paramount and its subsidiary fraudulently withheld more than $10-million from Jones, and demands that an independent auditor be appointed to assess fair compensation.
Jones is one of Hollywood’s most respected actors and has received critical acclaim for roles in films that include Men in Black, JFK, Batman Forever and In the Valley of Elah, which won him another Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. – guardian.co.uk