Director Robert Rodriguez Sued Over Film Delay Costs

LOS ANGELES (CN) – A production company says director Robert Rodriguez, best known for his work on violent, gritty action movies, showed a “pattern of misbehavior” and cost them almost $15 million due to delays while filming the sequel to the 2014 graphic novel adaptation of "Sin City", according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The lawsuit claims that Rodriguez caused delays before, during and after the production of the noir sequel and despite his contract stating he would work within an approved budget, caused production costs to balloon by more than $20 million.

SC2 Productions said Rodriguez caused the movie to miss its release date and the production company was forced to find cash flows to keep production going.

“When the dust settled, SC2 Productions ended up financing almost $15 million in cost overruns” and the production company said a financing and production company, Aldamisa International, did not make any money on the movie, despite their investment in the project, according to the lawsuit. 

A third plaintiff, Sergei Bespalov, sought out another investment group to loan money to the production, but now that company is owed $10 million, according to his account.

The first "Sin City" brought in a domestic gross of $74 million at the box office, with a $40 million budget according to Box Office Mojo.

By comparison, the 2014 sequel "Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For" made a domestic gross total of $13.75 million with an estimated budget of $65 million, according to the movie business website The Numbers.

According to the complaint, Rodriguez said he could secure a deferred service agreement for the film’s special effects with a production value of at least $10 million, but the plaintiffs say this was a false representation that was meant to deceive them.

Had the production company known this ahead of time, they said different terms with the special effects provider would have been negotiated.

In the complaint, which was filed on Monday, but only made available to the public on Wednesday, Rodriguez, his studio Fifth Brain and his production and investment companies are named - El Chingon Investments, El Chingon Productions 1, both based in Austin, Texas.

Plaintiffs are seeking at least $17 million for breach of contract, fraud and other allegations.

An email sent to an attorney who represented Rodriguez in a previous lawsuit was not immediately answered.

Plaintiffs are represented by Woodland Hills-based attorney Nicholas Siciliano. A phone call was not immediately responded to Wednesday afternoon.

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