Chinese online ticketing platform Weying Galaxy has filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against production company The H Collective (THC) in regards to a potential fourth film in the Vin Diesel-led “xXx” action franchise according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Weying says they had the opportunity in 2017 to buy the rights to new films in the action franchise from Revolution Studios who had generated the three films to date. The counterparty was The H Collective which had apparently represented that it had an option agreement with Revolution to fully acquire such rights.
Weying says it entered into an agreement with THC, both sides putting up a capital contribution towards a joint venture dubbed Xtreme Picture which would have full control over the fourth entry in the franchise as well as any future remakes and TV projects.
However, a year after both parties had started to do business, some irregularities emerged with Weying discovering that THC actually only had the ability to obtain 50% of the “xXx” derivative rights. In addition, any transfer would require the approval of Diesel himself which wasn’t obtained until this April – two years after Weying contributed $6.15 million to the Xtreme Picture venture while THC had allegedly had only put up $2.05 million – less than half of what they were expected to do.
In order to obtain that approval from “the Diesel Entity” as it is stated, they allegedly had to grant him “additional controls and approvals” which have apparently “further devalued” said rights. The entire complaint can be found on THR Esq. and goes into much more detail including a claim of numerous unauthorized investment transactions and a mishandling of over $40 million in funds.
The H Collective has issued a statement to the trade paper in response: “As The H Collective and its affiliated companies has neither been served with or notified of any legal action, we can’t comment any further. However, we will defend ourself vigorously against any lawsuit filed by Weying Galaxy, Inc. and strongly deny these allegations.”
