Director Antoine Fuqua may have a real-life drama to focus on as his former collaborator Paul Lozada is claiming that the filmmaker failed to make good on paying for his contributions to several of his major screenplays.
According to Variety, Lozada, who was once a San Francisco police officer, acted as a consultant on both Training Day as well as the first Equalizer film; providing insight into law enforcement as well as criminal enterprises. However, the pair’s latest partnership on Equalizer 3 is at the center of a 20-page lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, August 28. The complaints filed by Lozada are for breach of oral contract, implied-in-fact contract, common counts, and promissory fraud. Lozada claims that Fuqua solicited his insight on “the operations of the Italian mafia, drug trade shipping methods and the timeline of a forensic investigation of a murder scene.”
Citing text messages and oral communication between the two, Lozada alleges the 57-year-old director informed him that an employee from Sony Pictures would be in touch regarding compensation, which never happened.
After attempts to reach the set in Italy where the film was shot, as well as efforts to communicate with Fuqua, were futile, Lozada allegedly sent menacing messages to the director that ultimately resulted in a response. “Not one thing in Equalizer had anything to do with you. Not one thing. You came to Rome, and I wanted you involved somehow. To help you,” Fuqua allegedly said. “Not me… I have nothing but love and respect for you Paul. But I don’t Owe you anything.” The film, which stars Academy Award winner Denzel Washington, is the last in the highly successful trilogy and will hit theaters on September 1. Washington and Fuqua also worked together on Training Day, which earned the former an Oscar for Best Actor in 2003.
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