The English Patient producer Saul Zaentz has filed a big money lawsuit against Disney and Miramax.
Zaentz is suing the studios for $20 million (£12m) in profits from the 1996 Academy Award-winning film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Miramax and its former owner Disney have been accused of hiding revenue, abusing expenses and engaging in self-dealing following the release of the hit drama.
The lawsuit outlines a conspiracy to “keep the picture in a paper loss position so that no matter how much money The English Patient earned, Miramax and Disney would reap all of the profits”.
It adds: “To this day, despite the great success of the film, [Zaentz] has not even received from Miramax payment sufficient to recoup [Zaentz’s] costs of producing The English Patient.”
The English Patient grossed more than $300 million (£192m) worldwide, tens of millions of which is said to have been unlawfully withheld from Zaentz.
Zaentz has previously sued over practices related to the film. In 2006, the producer filed a similar complaint based on an audit of the movie’s books and records, though his claims were dismissed two years later.
Miramax shut down its studios in New York and Los Angeles in 2010. Harvey Weinstein, who ran the company in 1996, left years earlier to start the Weinstein Co.