HOLLYWOOD - Actor Randy Quaid is suing the producers of cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain for $10 million, claiming he was underpaid for his supporting role as rancher Joe Aguirre.
The 55-year-old star filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, alleging producers James Schamus and David Linde, through Focus Features and Del Mar Productions, persuaded him to drop his normal rates by misrepresenting the film as a low-budget film.
The Ang Lee movie, starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as two cowboys who fall in love while ranching, has taken an estimated $158 million at the international box office and secured a Best Director Oscar for Lee earlier this month.
The suit says, "Randy Quaid is an instantly recognizable household name and much-admired actor on the world's stage with a worldwide box office total of nearly $2 billion.
"Defendants were engaging in a 'movie laundering' scheme designed to obtain the services of talent... for a picture that, in reality, had studio backing and would be exploited using traditional studio marketing and distribution techniques."
Brokeback Mountain was made on an estimated budget of $14 million.
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