MGM sues Buckaroo Banzai creators over rights; Kevin Smith exits project
by Doc on Nov.29, 2016, under Television
Let me see if I can sum this up, as it seems a lot has happened very rapidly…MGM and Amazon struck a deal to develop a series based on the 1984 film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, and signed on Kevin Smith, the creator of Clerks and all the other Jay and Silent Bob movies and the guy I’d most like to just hang out and have a beer with, as the showrunner. But original writer Earl Mac Rauch and director Walter D. Richter claim they have the rights to a TV series. So MGM preemptively filed a lawsuit to have a court to seek declaration of the rights.
Telling fans in a Facebook video (shown below) that the lawsuit was “news to me,” Smith announced that he has dropped out of the project.
“I’m no longer involved. I don’t wish anybody harm; I wish all parties well. I hope these dudes come to an agreement, and if they do and they still want me involved down the road, I’ll be here. But why would they?”
He also said that no money has been spent so far on the show or anything like that, so no one is being displaced at this point.
Hopefully this can be settled soon, and really hopefully, amicably, although it seems the latter is a long shot.