Director Tony Leech has filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Harvey and Bob Weinstein alleging the pair sabotaged the delayed comedy Escape from Planet Earth.

According to court documents, Leech claims the Weinsteins sabotaged the film “through a potent combination of hubris, incompetence, profligate spending, and contempt for contractual obligations. The $50 million lawsuit labels both brothers as “out-of-control movie executives,” who “are the real-life version of Bialystock & Bloom.”

Leech claims Weinstein Co. paid him and fellow plaintiffs Brian Inerfeld and Protocol Pictures, Inc., $500,000 in order to delay the filing until after the Academy Awards. The lawsuit contends the Weinsteins, “knowing that they had been guilty of the incompetence and fraud,” did not want to take the chance that their “reputations would be sullied by the truth at a time when the voting for the Oscars was underway.”

Attorneys for the Weinsteins call the suit “frivolous” and “slanderous,” and claim the plaintiffs “were let go after they refused to make the picture which TWC wanted.”

If you are involved in a similar dispute, please contact an Orange County Business Litigation Attorney of Daily Aljian by calling 949-861-2524.