Whoops. While there are those who would probably rather no one at all tried to make another Raging Bull film – even with Jake LaMotta himself on board – that frustration is nothing compared to the freshly weaponised and lawyered up anger of rights holders MGM, which has launched a lawsuit against LaMotta and the producers of the new movie.
Despite the US beginning the slow fall into patriotic July 4th holiday mode and a firework / BBQ-happy state, the company has come out swinging with a complaint against the 91-year-old former boxer, looking to have the court to order production on the indie film stopped and for it to never see release.
The suit alleges that LaMotta had no right to allow the producers rights to his sequel book without first offering it to MGM. And that the team behind the new movie are publicly associating with Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning 1980 effort, claiming that it will tarnish the original.
**Raging Bull II **has The Rock’s William Forsythe playing an older LaMotta, and Mojean Aria as the younger Jake, with the script adapted from La Motta’s 1986 follow-up book.
This is round one – we’ll have to see if this fight goes anywhere…