It looks like MGM has had just about enough of those rapscallion filmmakers behind RAGING BULL II. The studio has filed a lawsuit against the indie filmmakers and the 91-year-old Jake LaMotta himself. Wait, a big movie studio is suing an elderly man? Now I feel a little bad.
MGM’s lawsuit claims that RAGING BULL II is “publicly associating the Sequel Picture” with the original RAGING BULL. MGM claims that this “is plainly intended to create confusion in the marketplace and to trade off the value” of the Martin Scorcese/Robert DeNiro classic and will “irreparably tarnish the value of the Picture and MGM’s rights therein.”
We previously showed you the first two official stills from the Martin Guigui directed film and they were nothing very special. The movie is an independent production and stars William Forsythe, Joe Mantegna, Tom Sizemore, Penelope Ann Miller, and Mojean Aria as the young Jake LaMotta.
If this film simply had an unrelated title to the Scorcese film, it would be a non-issue. Something like THE JAKE LAMOTTA STORY would have gotten the premise across to audiences. It is very clear by titling the film RAGING BULL II that the filmmakers wanted to capitalize directly on the first film. Plus, this is a prequel so there shouldn’t even be a two after the title.
MGM is looking for production to cease completely on the film so it may not be completed at all. Kind of like a car crash, now I want to see just how bad RAGING BULL II was/is going to be.
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