MGM Claims RAGING BULL II is 'Breach of Contract'

In an attempt to halt production on the upcoming film RAGING BULL II, MGM, the studio which produced the 1980 Martin Scorsese Academy Award-winning 'Raging Bull', has filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta and the Production Company behind the sequel.

Deadline.com reports that MGM believes that boxer Jake LaMotta, now 91, had a contractual obligation to offer them the film rights to his follow-up book, 1986′s Raging Bull II. The studio hopes that a jury will cease production on the film. “LaMotta and the RBII Defendants are publicly associating the Sequel Picture with the [original] in a manner that is plainly calculated to create confusion in the marketplace and to trade off the value of the [original],” MGM’s attorney claimed in their documented complaint. 

Director Scorsese and actor Robert DeNiro, who starred in the original film, are not involved in the sequel in any way. In the upcoming project, William Forsythe will portray the aging LaMotta while Mojean Aria will play a younger version of him. Cloris Leachman, Penelope Ann Miller, Joe Mantagne, Tom Sizemore, and Paul Sorvina are also set to star.