Gerard Butler starrer 'Copshop' is at the center of a lawsuit. Everett Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text Copshop writer Kurt McLeod has settled a lawsuit against his managers accusing them of having a conflict of interest when they negotiated his deal for the movie. Lawyers for McLeod and Zero Gravity Management founders Eric and Mark Williams on Wednesday notified the court of a deal to resolve the case. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. The legal battle started in 2022 when McLeod sued Zero Gravity for breach of contract and fiduciary duty, among other claims, related to his compensation for co-writing the screenplay for the 2021 movie starring Gerard Butler. McLeod's pay was tied to the film's budget (with a cap of $125,000), which he was initially told would be between $3 million to $10 million, according to the complaint filed in 2024 in California federal court. He later learned that it settled at more than $45 million after Butler came on board. Related Stories Movies 'The Rip' Filmmaker Joe Carnahan Commends Affleck, Damon and Netflix for Looking Out for the Little Guy TV HBO Max Says 'Heated Rivalry' Is Huge -- So Why Hasn't It Registered With Nielsen? The case raised questions surrounding potential conflicts of interest managers may have when they're also producers on a film their clients are involved in. At the heart of this lawsuit: Were McLeod's managers obligated to disclose the bump in the budget and renegotiate McLeod's pay, which potentially could've decreased their own? In Hollywood, managers, unlike agents, aren't allowed to be producers on their clients' titles. Still it's their fiduciary duty to put the interest of their clients first. That's what the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found when it reversed dismissal of the suit from a federal judge. It concluded that McLeod could've obtained additional compensation had he known about the increase in the budget. The Williamses, for instance, had the option of tapping into their own producer fees, possibly netting the writer hundreds of thousands of dollars more. There were two deals at issue in the case. In 2011, Zero Gravity and McLeod reached a two year representation agreement, which gave the his managers 15 percent of the writer's earnings and the right to serve as producers on any film made from his screenplay. McLeod ultimately wrote the script for Copshop under that deal. After the representation agreement expired in 2013, McLeod struck another arrangement for the Williamses to continue serving as his managers. In the case, the Williamses maintained that they didn't personally represent McLeod. The legal saga also included an arbitration with the Writers Guild of America over writing credits for the film over allegations that Mark Williams, best known for executive producing and writing Ozark, took undue credit for co-writing the screenplay. The guild concluded that the "story by" credit should be McLeod and Mark Williams, while the "screenplay by" credit should be McLeod and Joe Carnahan, Copshop's director. McLeod accused Zero Gravity of fabricating documents to credit Mark Williams as an author on the script. A trial was scheduled to start in March. THR Newsletters Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day Subscribe Sign Up CBS News CBS Offers Buyouts to Some 'Evening News' Staff as Tony Dokoupil Remakes Show Buchwald Buchwald Names Flora Huang New CFO (Exclusive) AGBO Russo Bros.' Production Company Cuts 15 Percent of Staff YouTube YouTube Canada Names Nicole Bell as New Head (Exclusive) Peter Chernin Chernin Group Takes Stake in 'The Rest Is' Podcast Firm Goalhanger united kingdom BBC Names Interim Director-General After Tim Davie Stands Down in April CBS News CBS Offers Buyouts to Some 'Evening News' Staff as Tony Dokoupil Remakes Show Buchwald Buchwald Names Flora Huang New CFO (Exclusive) AGBO Russo Bros.' Production Company Cuts 15 Percent of Staff YouTube YouTube Canada Names Nicole Bell as New Head (Exclusive) Peter Chernin Chernin Group Takes Stake in 'The Rest Is' Podcast Firm Goalhanger united kingdom BBC Names Interim Director-General After Tim Davie Stands Down in April