Nigerian Entertainment Blog: Actress Eva Green Wins London Court Case Over $1m Fee For Failed Film
Hollywood actress Eva Green has won a legal fight with producers and financiers whom she sued in London’s High Court for her fee for a failed film that never got made.
The beautiful 42-year-old actress successfully sued White Lantern Film after production on A Patriot was shuttered in October 2019.
She claimed she was entitled to her million-dollar (£810,000) fee for the £ 4.6 million film, despite its cancellation, under the terms of their agreement.
White Lantern Film and lender SMC Speciality Finance (SMC) brought a counterclaim against Ms Green, alleging she undermined the independent film’s production and renounced the contract.
In a judgment in April, Mr Justice Michael Green found in Ms Green’s favour, ruling she was entitled to the fee and dismissing the counterclaim. But the judge did not accept that it was ‘credible or adequate’ for the Hollywood star – who called the producers ‘weak and stupid’, ‘pure vomit’ and ‘total a***holes’ – to blame her rudeness on her ‘Frenchness coming out’.
The case returned on Friday to the High Court in London, which heard the actress’s estimated legal bill was almost £1.7 million.
Edmund Cullen KC, for the Casino Royale star, made a bid for an interim payment towards Ms Green’s legal fees of £1.4 million, around 83 per cent of the estimate.
However, James Goodwin, for White Lantern Film and SMC, had argued that the ‘appropriate figure’ for the interim payment was £650,000, around 70 per cent of Ms Green’s previous costs budget.
Mr Justice Michael Green ruled that the actress should be awarded an interim payment of £1.2 million, ahead of a further hearing before a specialist judge to finalise the bills which are set to be paid by White Lantern Film and SMC.
During Friday’s hearing, Ms Green also won a bid to have her total legal fees assessed more favourably by a specialist judge.
Mr Cullen told the court the actress had offered to settle the case last year if she was given $900,000 (£728,000) of her fee, with White Lantern Film and SMC taking the remaining money and the accrued interest.
The court heard that as the offer was not accepted, Ms Green’s costs after August 2022 will be assessed on an indemnity rather than a standard basis – a decision which is more favourable to Ms Green in terms of the amount of her legal bill she can recover.
She is also entitled to a 10 per cent interest rate on those costs and a one-off payment of £75,000.
On Friday, Mr Cullen asked for all of Ms Green’s legal fees to be assessed on this more favourable basis.
In written submissions, the barrister said:
‘The defendants sought to abuse the court process through advancing and maintaining a defence and a counterclaim founded squarely upon false evidence, and the court should signal that such conduct is unacceptable through making an indemnity costs order.’
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