Sean Connery Sues Mandalay Pictures

Posted by Ashish on 10.14.2002

Connery claims the studio lied to him about financing...

Sean Connery has filed suit against Mandalay Pictures and its CEO Peter Gubar, claiming that the studio lied to him about not being able to finance a movie that he was set to star in.

Connery says that Mandalay and Gubar approached him in 1999 about starring in their upcoming film, End Game. Gubar told Connery that Mandalay would pay him $17 million to star in the movie and encouraged him to spend time developing the movie. Gubar continued to assure him that they would be making the film, but after Connery and Mandalay agreed on a screenplay and started looking for directors earlier this year, Gubar cut off all communication with Connery.

Connery claims that Mandalay did not have the means to finance End Game and used its association with Connery to improve its status in Hollywood.

Mandalay was apparently counting on a public stock offering to finance the movie, but things did not pan out as planned.

The suit goes on to claim that Mandalay, after a string of failing movies, used a fake relationship with Connery to uphold their image in Hollywood.