In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Cecchi Gori Pictures, the production company headed by Vittorio Cecchi Gori, claims it entered into several agreements with Scorsese and his Sikelia Productions for him to direct 'Silence', the Hollywood Reporter said.
The film is based on a Japanese novel by Shusaku Endo about missionaries who are sent to Japan in 1683 to investigate reports of Christians being tortured by the country's emperor.
The production company claims it invested USD 750,000 to develop the film and that Scorsese agreed in 1990 to direct it after 'Kundun' (1997).
In 2004 and 2011, Scorsese and his company allegedly signed deals to postpone Silence so he could direct 'The Departed', 'Shutter Island' and 'Hugo'.
Scorsese is said to have agreed to pay "substantial compensation and other valuable benefits, for the right to direct these three other films prior to Silence," according to the complaint.
Those fees are said to be USD 1 million - USD 1.5 million per film plus up to 20 per cent of Scorsese's backend compensation.
The suit claims that despite the agreement, Scorsese never paid his delay fee for Hugo and now has decided to direct Leonardo DiCaprio starrer 'Wolf of Wall Street' for Paramount instead of 'Silence'.
"The Checchi Gori Parties cannot allow their rights to be ignored or compromised by further delay on the part of Scorsese and Sikelia," the complaint alleges.
