Jerry Lewis filed a $2.3m lawsuit against two entertainment companies, claiming he is owed money over a proposed remake of his 1961 movie, The Errand Boy.
The 80-year-old comedian’s lawsuit, filed last Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, names as defendants Spyglass Entertainment Group and Hollywood Pictures Corp.
Calls to Spyglass were not immediately returned yesterday. No phone listing could be found for Hollywood Pictures.
The lawsuit said Lewis and JAS Productions Inc. entered into an agreement with Hollywood Pictures in 1996 that gave the film company an option to remake The Errand Boy.
Lewis was to act in the film and serve as a consultant and executive producer if the option was exercised, the lawsuit said.
Between 1999 and 2001, Hollywood assigned its rights to Spyglass, which never made the movie but prepared a screenplay and hired scriptwriters, according to the lawsuit.