MGM suing ‘Raging Bull 2′

K. Thor Jensen Contributing Writer, Entertainment

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Oh, thank God. Hopefully this idiotic movie will die like the dog it is. So we broke the news to you that a bunch of nobodies are somehow making Raging Bull 2, a sequel to one of the greatest boxing movies of all time, with almost none of the original film’s cast or crew. And now it looks like MGM, the studio behind the first movie, is moving to shut them down.

Deadline is reporting that, with good reason, MGM believes that the sequel is “trading off of” the reputation of the original movie. This is legalese for “if our thing didn’t exist, your thing wouldn’t make any damn money at all.” The weirdest thing about the whole deal is that Raging Bull 2 is based on writings by Jake LaMotta, the real-life boxer who is the subject of both films. So MGM is basically arguing that the dude’s life story isn’t worth anything without the movie that’s already been made. How does that even work?

LaMotta had a deal with MGM in his original contract that stated that he needed to offer the rights to any further books to MGM first. He didn’t do that in this case (not that they would have bought them), and that’s how we got where we are today. Legally, it’s pretty cut and dried, but who knows how it will all shake out.