Benedict Fitzgerald, the man who wrote the movie “The Passion of the Christ” is suing Mel Gibson on the claim that the director stiffed him by saying it would be a small film.  Instead, the film turned out to be a big budget flick that raked in the dough.

According to papers filed in at the Los Angeles Superior Court today, Fitzgerald claims that the film, Mel’s “personal gift to his faith”, was to have a budget of around $4 to $7 million and that there wouldn’t be a whole lot of money in the budget for the writer.  He also claims that Gibson told him several times that he didn’t plan to make any money from the movie. The film, instead of the low-budget flick Fitzgerald was told of, turned out to cost nearly $30 million and netted Gibson a small fortune, grossing over $600 million globally.

Fitzgerald is suing for fraud and is asking for damagers in excess of $25,000.  Representatives from Gibson’s production company, Icon Productions, have said that the lawsuit is “frivolous” and that Fitzgerald was “handsomely compensated.”

Give the guy a break.  He’s probably running out of cash with the writer’s strike, and is $25,000 really that much to ask for when the film brought in hundreds of millions?  If he was simply out make ridiculous claims, I think he’d go for more money.

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