Adrien Brody doesn’t want anybody to see his work in the Italian horror flick Giallo, which is scheduled to be released tomorrow on DVD. Brody has sued for $3 million and is attempting to stop the film’s release, not because the film bombed with critics or never got released theatrically in the U.S. (although that may be true as well), but rather because he alleges that producers lied to him in order to stop him from walking off the set. More inside.
The Oscar-winning actor allegedly signed a “pay or play” deal to star in “Giallo,” directed by Italian horror king Dario Argento. About a week into production, Brody says he discovered the film was underfunded and that producers had failed to pay $640,000 into an escrow account.

Brody was prepared to walk, but was allegedly told that the film had new guaranteed funding lined up from a $2 million sale of Italian distribution rights. Producers allegedly asked Brody to sign a new agreement whereby he would continue to act and temporarily defer his $640,000 in exchange for having the “absolute right to withhold consent to the use of his likeness in the Picture” until he was paid in full.

Brody says in a lawsuit filed on on Thursday in federal court in California that he was never paid and that the story of new funding was “phony.” When Brody attempted to exercise his rights to hold back the picture, producers allegedly ignored him and said that they would never pay him.

The actor wants a permanent injunction against distribution of the film as well as the $640,000 he’s owed, plus $2 million more for breach of contract, breach of fair dealing, fraud, and misappropriation of his publicity rights.