How Much Is a Lost Producer Credit Worth? In ‘Charlie Says’ Trial, A Jury Says $1.9M

Director and producer Kevin Shulman was awarded $1.9 million after a jury found that he was cheated out of a producer credit in Manson family murders movie Charlie Says.

The decision by the jury in Los Angeles County, which came on Feb. 9 after less than a day of deliberations, included $1 million in punitive damages for fraud. The case is one of the few business disputes concerning producer titles that have gone to trial, with most being resolved in arbitration or settling, and could inform the valuation of such posts in future legal battles.

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The jury concluded that Kevin Shulman’s contract was breached when he was blindsided by an eleventh-hour deal reducing his role to co-producer and fee to $15,000 after working on the movie for eight years, including when he was undergoing treatment for cancer. Damages were calculated, in part, by determining work that would’ve come his way if he had received his second full producer credit on a theatrically-released movie.

“How many more jobs would flow from this one?” said John Fowler, a lawyer for Shulman, of how damages were estimated. “If you get a project like this released, that makes you more attractive to other financiers and agents. You’re playing in the big leagues.”

Shulman and Jeremy Rosen allegedly entered into an oral agreement in 2010 to develop and produce a film based on the Mason family murders. They drafted producer Dana Guerin and reunited screenwriter Guinevere Turner and director Mary Harron, known for their work on American Psycho.

Under their deal, Shulman and Rosen agreed to equally share all producer fees, as well as any back-end fees and participation, to be no less than five percent of the $5.5 million budget, or $275,000, the suit alleged. Rosen and Guerin in 2014 established Squeaky Films, the entity through which the movie would be developed. But that same year, Shulman was diagnosed with cancer and was forced to divert some of his time away from the production, according to the complaint. When he returned to set in 2018, he alleged he was offered a dramatically reduced title and fee for his work on the film.

Shulman sued Rosen, Guerin and Squeaky Films. He also named John Frank Rosenblum and Cindi Rice, employees of Epic Level Entertainment who were brought on to replace him, and IFC Films, which bought Charlie Says for distribution.

Rosen, Shulman’s friend and business partner who served as his legal counsel and talent manager, in June 2021 settled the suit. The remaining defendants denied Shulman’s claims and argued that he didn’t do anything that would entitle him to a producer credit because he didn’t do any work from 2016 to 2018 to produce the movie. On summary judgment, they stressed that Guerin never had a deal with Shulman “while Epic Level and Squeaky Film are strangers to the purported oral agreement and thus cannot be held liable for allegedly breaching it.”

Shulman’s lawyers showed the jury several emails reflecting their client’s work on Charlie Says, in addition to copies of budgets, crew lists, and press releases naming him as the producer. In one email, Guerin, Rosenblum and Rice discussed eliminating Shulman’s credit and having to “deal” with compensating him for his previous work on the project. The evidence laid the groundwork for the suit’s conspiracy, breach of contract and fraud claims, Fowler said.

Turner and Harron also testified in support of Shulman, describing his contributions in assembling a team of investors and crew and explaining that the movie wouldn’t have been released if it weren’t for his efforts.

Former Producers Guild of America executive director and COO Vance Van Petten, who testified as an expert, estimated Shulman’s damages flowing from losing a producer credit at roughly $800,000 to $1.2 million. The figure represents Shulman’s fee over the next four or five jobs he could’ve secured if he had received the proper title for Charlie Says.

“If his fee is 2.5 percent to five percent the budget, we can safety assume a $100,000 to $500,000 fee per picture with a multiplier of three to five projects,” said Fowler, who noted that the verdict “presents a potential watershed moment in the way these cases are perceived and ultimately litigated.”

The dispute also sparked a cross-suit from Squeaky Films against Rosen and his production company Roxwell Films, which settled. The suit claimed Rosen misled potential investors, used money from the budget on housing and travel, mishandled negotiations with the Screen Actors Guild, charged $35,000 for legal work when he wasn’t qualified to practice law in California, and made unauthorized representations to Turner and Harron about their compensation for their work on the movie. In 2018, Squeaky Films ousted Roxwell and its interest in Charlie Says from the production, according to the cross-complaint.

In a statement, Shulman said, “I’m thrilled that my work on this project was vindicated so clearly and completely by the jury. I look forward to now continuing my focus on producing future projects.”

Shulman was represented by Fowler, Kevin Cammiso and Zien Halwani Kibler Fowler & Cave.

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