Attorney Claims Bogus Filmmakers Duped Him

LOS ANGELES (CN) – A well-known Houston attorney claims in court that an aspiring actor and two filmmakers bilked him of $1.5 million in a Ponzi scam involving a movie that never happened.
Attorney Anthony Buzbee sued Gayle Dickie and three other people, Weathervane Productions and five other film companies , and Wells Fargo Advisors, on Oct. 31 in Superior Court.
Buzbee represented many plaintiffs after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster.
He claims in the lawsuit that defendants Gayle Dickie, his company Hey Girl Hey Entertainment, James Allen Bradley and aspiring actor Jason Van Eman approached him this year and asked him to invest $1.5 million in a project called “In Light of the Dance.”
Entertainment industry website IMDb Pro lists “In Light of the Dance” as in development, crediting Bradley as director, Dickie as co-writer and Buzbee as executive producer.
Buzbee claims that three men told him that Ryan Gosling, Justin Timberlake, and a well-known dance troupe were interested in joining the film. Neither Gosling nor Timberlake are parties to the lawsuit.
Buzbee claims that Dickie, Bradley and Vaneman told him that half the $3 million budget was already in place, that Lloyd’s of London had insured the film, and that Lionsgate would distribute it. He claims that the three men told him that if he invested another $1.5 million the movie could start shooting in August 2014.
Buzbee claims he wired the $1.5 million, which was held in a Wells Fargo bank account, then was told that conflicts in Timberlake’s schedule had delayed the project until April 2015.
He says the three men persuaded him to move his money to another project that was to start shooting immediately.
Buzbee says he did not know when he in invested in the project that the defendants’ claims were “utterly false.”
“Plaintiff’s monies were actually being used as security, and not for a movie investment. Defendants are operating what is in essence a Ponzi scheme,” the complaint states.
Buzbee says he discovered the film was not legitimate when he learned that investors had sued two of the individual defendants for breach of contract in Hawaii.
“There was no agreement with the international dance troupe. There was no ongoing negotiation with Justin Timberlake. There was no production schedule. The reason defendants wanted to move the monies was so they could control the monies themselves, and extricate themselves from the writer of ‘In Light of the Dance,’” the 10-page complaint states.
Buzbee says that when he asked for his money back, the defendants sent him a settlement agreement which he had never seen before. He says he asked the defendants to return his money but has not seen a dime.
Seeking $6.5 million in damages, and $250,000 in attorney fees for fraud, fraud in the inducement and conversion, Buzbee wants the court to void the settlement agreement.
Named as defendants are Dickie, Bradley, Vaneman, executive producer Ben McConley, Weathervane Productions, Forrest Capital Partners, ILOTD Movie, Red Jupiter/3Way Films, Hey Girl Hey Entertainment/3Way Films, and Wells Fargo Advisors.
3 Way Films did not immediately respond to a request for comment.