Legendary Pictures has lost its appeal over a lawsuit regarding three producers who were fired from the upcoming film, Godzilla.
The three producers, Dan Lin, Roy Lee and Doug Davison, didn't like a ruling from the Los Angeles Superior Court that sided with Legendary about taking things to arbitration and had appealed, reports Variety.
The movie studio had hoped to take the issue to arbitration, but a California appeals court did not agree with the previous ruling, which means the problem between the two sides could be heading to court, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In January of last year, Legendary had removed the three producers and Lin Pictures and Lee's Vertigo Entertainment as the studio seemed to believe they were not doing enough on the project and sued in an effort to be able to move on without them.
After Legendary's initial lawsuit, Lin and the others filed a countersuit where they are asking for millions in damages, plus "substantial punitive damages to make an example of Legendary so that it and no other studio will in the future treat their producers in this outrageous manner."
Legendary then decided it would be best to take their problems with the producers to arbitration, though the contract the studio references was never signed by any of the producers.
Lin, Lee and Davison claim the studio initially orally agreed upon a $25,000 developmental fee, $1.3 million in compensation and three percent of Godzilla's first-dollar gross.
Godzilla, starring Bryan Cranston and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, hits theaters May 16.
image courtesy of Warner Bros.