David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel's Bones Lawsuit: Will It Derail Season 12?
A 12th season of Bones may not be such a sure bet after all.
Series stars David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel, along with executive producer Kathleen Reichs, filed a lawsuit on Monday against 21st Century Fox, Fox Entertainment Group, 20th Century Fox Film Corporation and Fox Broadcasting Company in pursuit of “tens of millions of dollars” they believe they’re owed.
In a nutshell, Boreanaz and Deschanel — along with Reichs, upon whose Temperance Brennan novels the Fox procedural is loosely based — believe their work has made a substantial amount of money for Fox (more than $100 million), yet they haven’t been sufficiently compensated. The actors claim they’re contractually entitled to 3 percent of the series’ profits, while Reichs is owed 5 percent, and neither has received satisfactory payment.
Adding fuel to this already touchy situation, the trio’s lawsuit comes just days after Bones executive producer Barry Josephson filed his own lawsuit against Fox. That suit drums up quite a bit more trouble, alleging that several Fox execs threatened to cancel the series in 2009 if the show’s producers — including Boreanaz, Deschanel and Reichs — didn’t agree to lowering the episodic license fees for the then-upcoming fifth and sixth seasons.
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New episodes of Bones return Dec. 10, but with the long-running procedural suspiciously MIA from the network’s 2016 schedule, you have every right to wonder whether this lawsuit could negatively impact the show’s future. A source close to the show tells TVLine that it’s unclear if the suit will have an adverse effect on a potential 12th season.
What are your thoughts on this legal drama, Bones fans? Do you think — maybe — it is time for the show to take its final bow? Whatever you’re feeling, drop it in a comment below.
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