Producers Steve Stabler and Brad Krevoy, who last year sued Red Granite Pictures for being frozen out of the sequel to “Dumb and Dumber,” have added a new claim to their complaint: violation of racketeering laws.
But Red Granite contends that the latest twist in the litigation is “false, malicious and baseless,” with no facts to back it up.
In an amended complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Stabler and Krevoy claim that Red Granite’s principals Riza Aziz and Joey McFarland have funded the company “with monies that include proceeds from unlawful activities,” and that the money has been used to finance the “Dumb and Dumber” sequel and “The Wolf of Wall Street.” But their claim does not go into specifics of the nature of the unlawful activities, other than to cite “published reports that individuals based in Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia and other countries in Asia and the Middle East have engaged in unlawful activities” and then invested the “ill-gotten gains” into Red Granite.
The new claim is for violation of the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO.
The lawsuit’s origins are in a complaint that Red Granite filed last year, seeking a declaration that Krevoy and Stabler, producers on the 1994 original “Dumb and Dumber,” have no claim on the sequel, “Dumb and Dumber To.”
Krevoy and Stabler then filed a counterclaim, contending that a written agreement from 1994 gives them a right of first negotiation for sequels and remakes on terms as least as favorable to the original, and that Red Granite assumed that obligation when it purchased the rights. They contend that they are owed a minimum of $400,000 in front end compensation as well as producing credits.
The amended complaint with the new allegations was filed on March 25.
In a statement, Red Granite said that the “false, malicious and baseless allegations are demonstrably untrue, and Red Granite looks forward to the prompt dismissal of these claims. Not surprisingly, given they have no facts to back up their accusations Mssrs. Krevoy and Stabler resorted to rank speculation and innuendo. There is simply nothing to these naked allegations.”
Krevoy and Stabler are represented by Bryan Freedman, Steven Stiglitz and Steven Formaker of Freedman and Taitelman. Red Granite is represented by Barry Mallen of Loeb & Loeb.
Their suit seeks unspecified damages.
