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Wheel of Time TV Pilot Producers Sue Robert Jordan's Widow For Defamation

Posted by samzenpus on from the plot-thickens dept.

An anonymous reader writes The tale of the late-night Wheel of Time pilot that aired in a paid infomercial slot on FXX has taken another odd turn. Producers Red Eagle Entertainment LLC and Manetheren LLC have filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for central California against Harriet McDougal (widow of James Rigney, who wrote the Wheel of Time novels under the pen name Robert Jordan), her company, Bandersnatch Group Inc., and twenty unnamed other persons ('Does 1-20'). The suit alleges that McDougal's statements about her lack of involvement in the pilot's production constitute breach of contract, slander, and interference with contractual relations and prospective economic relations; the suit demands declaratory relief and a jury trial.

35 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Welcome to the U.S. of A. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You looked at me funny, see you in court.

    1. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It isn't when you consider that the plaintiff's goals may well have nothing to do with 'recovering damages', insomuch as they're probably doing it to shut her up and at the same time please/placate their investors.

      Fuck them and their SCO-spirited kin in either case.

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    2. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Getting sued for being honest about not doing something is a bit much though, even for USA.

      According to the plaintiffs, she was not being honest. There is also the matter that, according to the plaintiffs, she was paid (indirectly through her husband's estate) and contractually bound to keep her mouth shut. I have no idea what "the truth" is, but I don't think it is black and white. If she doesn't want to abide by the terms of the contract, she should at least be compelled to disgorge the money she was paid.

       

    3. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by halltk1983 · · Score: 4, Informative

      They're doing it to prevent her from reclaiming the film and television rights, and selling them to someone else. It's always been about the money for them, for the last 7 years. It's a damn shame that people ever believed that they were fans that intended on doing something worthwhile with the rights.

      --
      Watch for Penguins, they eat Apples and throw rocks at Windows.
    4. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by Frobnicator · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There is also the matter that, according to the plaintiffs, she was paid (indirectly through her husband's estate) and contractually bound to keep her mouth shut.

      Contracts don't work indirectly like that. Either you agree to the terms directly or you don't. As all legal organizations including the SCOTUS recognized, a valid contract requires free consent.

      Either she was a party to the contract with it's nondisparagement clause, and agreed to keep her mouth shut about all production details, or she was not part of the contract and the company is in the wrong. Her statement was that the show made during her husband's life and with her husband's contract was done "without my knowledge or cooperation," which is quite likely since her then-living husband likely took care of his own business deals.

      Some portions of a contract may survive a death and transfer to estates. Others automatically dissolve completely (such as partnership agreements between two people) or require affirmation that the new parties accept the new terms of a new, successor agreement. Binding nondisparagement terms do not transfer to other people.

      On its face it looks like the company made an agreement with a now deceased individual. The question is one of contract law. If she signed the contract then she was bound and shouldn't have said anything. But if she didn't sign the agreements, she should be adding a counter-claim.

      Can they produce such a contract? Do they have a nondisparagement agreement that SHE signed? That's the key to the entire dispute.

      --
      //TODO: Think of witty sig statement
    5. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 2

      I have no idea what "the truth" is, but I don't think it is black and white.

      It's increasingly apparent that the color of "the truth" is green - $$$.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    6. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by Pseudonym · · Score: 3, Funny

      It sounds like the truth is fouled by the touch of the Dark One, like water with a thin slick of rancid oil floating on top. The water is still pure, but it could not be touched without touching the foulness.

      --
      sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
    7. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      According to the CEO of Red Eagle Entertainment:

      1. Their rights were about to expire.
      2. They did it without FXX's knowledge which was achieved by purchasing a late-night infomercial time slot.
      3. He claims it was high budget but the results, if you've watched the pilot, says otherwise...In other words is was terrible beyond measure.

      He also goes on to claim that they plan to do a blockbuster quality movie adaptation and boldly says that he plans to directly challenge the Game of Thrown series on HBO.

      To me it seems like Red Eagle Entertainment has some serious grandiose delusions most especially if their contract is about to expire, if not already, and have gone to battle with the wife of the author which will likely end with them losing any chance of further working with Robert Jordans' literature ever again...

    8. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by wisnoskij · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Still, if she inherited the copyright ownership, she inherited her way into the lease agreement. She has become the official head of the franchise. Just because a CEO changes does not mean that the company is no longer under any obligation to fulfill its contracts. And since she in the official in charge of this entity, it is far more like a ceo role than an individual. I am not certain, but if she was found to have officially stated this in her role as the head of the WoT universe, instead of just as an individual, I could see that holding some weight in court.

      --
      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    9. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by BWS · · Score: 4, Insightful

      IANAL in the USA, but my theory is this.

      The contact was probably between Universal Studios and Bandersnatch Group and it included a non-disparagement agreement. From the article here (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2015/02/wheel-of-time-pilot-harriet-statement) it looks like she was speaking in her capacity as the CEO of Bandersnatch Group.

      --
      -- Note: These Comments are Generated by ME! Not You! ME!
    10. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by rossz · · Score: 2

      So it depends upon whether the contract was signed under the author's business or as an individual, right? I'm guessing either is plausible, so it's simply a matter of looking at the original wording of the contract to see who signed it. Was it signed by James Rigney or by Robert Jordan, Inc. I'm not a lawyer, just asking questions.

      --
      -- Will program for bandwidth
    11. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by radarskiy · · Score: 2

      If the contract with the non-disparagement clause was with Universal then a) it doesn't apply since this wasn't a Universal production, and b) Red Eagle would have no standing to invoke it.

    12. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by BWS · · Score: 2

      Sorry, I made a mistake. What if the contract was between Red Eagle and Bandersnatch Group?

      --
      -- Note: These Comments are Generated by ME! Not You! ME!
    13. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by Maxwell'sSilverLART · · Score: 4, Informative

      The estate is a separate legal entity from any person. Contracts that flow into the estate remain binding upon the estate. Ergo, she doesn't need to have signed it; it's still binding upon the estate.

      The distinction that people seem to be missing is that nobody is squelching her freedom of speech as an individual, but rather as a beneficiary of the estate. Again, remember that the estate is its own legal entity. She's not being sued as J. Random Person, but rather as somebody who profits from that estate. As a beneficiary, she's also subject to its contracts. If she breaches those contracts, she's subject to suit in her capacity as beneficiary, and can be forced to disgorge her profits from the estate.

      (Note: I practice in probate law.)

      --
      Moderate drunk! It's more fun that way!
    14. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      This seems to me extremely unlikely.

      My uncle dies. He wrote a book and has a significant estate. In his will he leaves me the revenue from that estate.
      I don't see how I could possibly be bound by any contracts involving that estate at all.
      Unless there is some agreement that the estate has signed that says the revenue will be cut off to me if I say negative things against the estate. In which case suing me is completely pointless. I still have nothing to do with it. You would need to sue the estate to get it to stop paying me the revenue. I've not agreed to anything at any point whatsoever.

      So I don't see how I could be sued as a beneficiary of the estate. The estate being sued yes, but me, no. I still have nothing to do with it.
      Yes, likely the widow is more heavily involved in a more complex arrangement but I don't see how its possible to subject a non-involved party to a contract simply because they receive a windfall.

      It seems like over-reach to me. I don't see the legal basis for claiming the individual as a participant in the contract.

    15. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by meerling · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "3. He claims it was high budget but the results, if you've watched the pilot, says otherwise...In other words is was terrible beyond measure."

      Master of understatement there.
      I've seen better stuff done by highschoolers in the early 1980s with a budget of less than $50 in only a week.
      (No lie, it was some friends of mine.)

      This was obviously a simple attempt at securing a cash grab and was done in bad faith and what I suspect is very questionable validity in the first place.

      (ianal)

    16. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by Minwee · · Score: 2

      My uncle dies. He wrote a book and has a significant estate. In his will he leaves me the revenue from that estate.

      I don't see how I could possibly be bound by any contracts involving that estate at all.

      Try this. Your uncle writes a book that has significant value. He forms a corporation which owns the rights to that book, has the corporation enter into a number of contracts and then names you as CEO. At that point it doesn't matter if he lives, dies, or is abducted by aliens and carried off to Betelgeuse VI. The corporation, not the individual, is responsible.

    17. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by Rakarra · · Score: 2

      The heck you can't.

      Even if I used every volume of A Song of Ice and Fire, all of the Calendars, Atlases and Graphic Novels, I still couldn't prop up this desk nearly high enough to reach the window. Wheel of Time can do all that and still leave me with two extra books to straighten out the chair.

      If sheer word count is the only qualifier, then yes, Wheel of Time would come out on top!

      When a serious adaptation of Wheel of Time gets made, I hope they hire quality writers, as well as the strong, forceful editor that Jordan needed and never had.

  2. Pen name? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Robert Jordan wasn't his name?? All those years... And I didn't know.

    1. Re:Pen name? by Zcar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Of course, Sanderson only did books 12, 13 and 14.

    2. Re:Pen name? by LordWabbit2 · · Score: 2

      And a damn good job he did, as much as I love the series, the middle of it was a grind to get through. Seemed like a lot of dress twitching and braid pulling to me. Especially book 10, although the end was awesome getting there was painful (and I took a day off work to read it). But Sanderson brought the series back to vivid spectacular life again.

      --
      There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
  3. Law takes its course by invictusvoyd · · Score: 4, Funny

    Engineer : There was chaos and the god created the universe in 8 days or so . So I was needed first , to build design etc.

    Doctor : But then he created eve from adams rib so I had to be there for the surgery and the etc.

    Lawer : Haha .. who do you think created the chaos ?

    1. Re:Law takes its course by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 3, Funny

      Lawyer: Ha ha ... who do you think created the chaos ?

      There's actually an Emacs command for that.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  4. *sniff* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    What a bunch of wool-headed fools! *crosses arms beneath breasts*

    1. Re:*sniff* by Dins · · Score: 4, Funny

      ...while pulling on braid and muttering something under breath about sheepherders...

    2. Re:*sniff* by SeaFox · · Score: 4, Funny

      Responses from other women involved much smoothing of skirts.

  5. Re:What a reason to sue by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is a clear case of not caring. On one hand the 'pilot' was a blatant attempt at working around their contract, and while I don't think it was as terrible as some think (as basic cable goes), was clearly an afterthought. On the other hand, it's hard to care at all about his wife's position. She was the one who delayed the ebook release for reasons that only cavemen can relate to, and she continues to generally pop up in annoying and unhelpful ways. Generally its' greedy people fighting over the monies, don't give a crap who wins or loses, the rest of us already have lost.

  6. Re:Tragic series by halltk1983 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It ends extremely well. I highly recommend finishing it. 14 books all told, grab them from the library if you don't want to invest the finance into it, it's definitely worth the time.

    --
    Watch for Penguins, they eat Apples and throw rocks at Windows.
  7. Re:What a reason to sue by halltk1983 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Having met her, spoken with her, and knowing people that know her well, that's not a fair assessment. She genuinely cares about the material. She was the editor for it all, and she knows it better than anyone other than perhaps Jim's assistant Maria. Saying she's just his wife / widow is very unfair, and saying that she's unhelpful is just untrue. That said, the ebook delay was inconvenient to many of my friends, but there's just something about holding hard bound epic fantasy that enthralls me, and makes me not care for the ebooks.

    --
    Watch for Penguins, they eat Apples and throw rocks at Windows.
  8. Re:Tragic series by irrational_design · · Score: 2

    As I commented above, I loved the first book and the books written by Sanderson, but not the middle books so much. I would highly recommend reading the books written by Sanderson. I would love to read the entire series re-written by Sanderson. It would be amazing.

  9. Re:What a reason to sue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    From Good eReader

    In an incredibly stupid decision, the late Robert Jordan’s wife has caused the last Wheel of Time book, A Memory of Light, to be delayed until April after the print book is released this week. Originally it was scheduled to be delayed for a full year. According to Galleycat, this has, so far, resulted in 119 one star reviews (now up to 122) on Amazon. I suspect that this one star reviewer’s comment is typical: “I instead will search internet when I get home and will be paying the first industrious individual that has scanned the book and offered for sale.” I think that a lot of people will be looking around certain sites for scanned copies.

    The actual author, Brian Sanderson, says that this decision was neither his nor Tor’s. On his blog he states:

    This is not my decision or Tor’s decision, but Harriet’s. She is uncomfortable with ebooks. Specifically, she worries about ebooks cutting into the hardcover sales. It isn’t about money for her, as the monetary difference between the two is negligible here. It is about a worry that her husband’s legacy will be undermined if sales are split between ebooks and hardcovers, preventing the last book of the Wheel of Time from hitting number one on either list. (Many of the bestseller lists are still handling ebooks in somewhat awkward ways.)

    As the last books have all hit number one, she doesn’t want to risk one of these not hitting number one, and therefore ending the series on a down note. (Even though each Wheel of Time book has sold more than its predecessor, including the ones I have worked on.) I personally feel her worries are unfounded, and have explained that to her, but it is not my choice and I respect her reasoning for the decision. She is just trying to safeguard Robert Jordan’s legacy, and feels this is a very important way she needs to do so. After talking about the issue, we were able to move the ebook up from the originally planned one-year delay to instead come out this spring.

    After they came out in ebook form I threw out my collection of the hardcovers (the library didn’t want them) and bought them all in ebook format. As to the last book, given her attitude, I either won’t buy it at all or will find a free copy somewhere. When will people learn that defying the consumer is never a good business tactic. She has probably done more to hurt her husband’s legacy by this ill-conceived action than she can imagine. From now on Robert Jordan’s Memory of Light will be remembered by the reading community as the source of an ebook that the author’s wife didn’t want the public to have. I think I’ll go over to Amazon and, for the first time, leave a 1 star review.

  10. Re:What a reason to sue by LordLucless · · Score: 2

    Or, you know, pirate it. Which is generally the same response to the movie studies pulling their dick move. Artificially limiting supply creates a black market. I don't know if her move helped the book's position on the Times, but I guarantee it drastically increased the motivation to pirate.

    --
    Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
  11. Screw those guys by Keith111 · · Score: 2

    All we need is another Sword of Truth debacle where the tv show is disgustingly horrid and offensive to any fans of the series. Sell the rights to HBO or Netflix, they seem to be the only two companies that are currently producing TV shows while actually caring about the quality and content.

  12. The best part by ITRambo · · Score: 2

    The best part of the pilot was the opening credits. The actual storytelling was annoying. It was truly terrible.

  13. BALEFIRE! by Ann+Coulter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That TV pilot lacked the requisite balefire from the sky in the prologue of The Eye Of The World. That balefire can be put to good use on Red Eagle Entertainment LLC and Manetheren LLC and erasing them, the pilot, and this lawsuit from the Pattern.