I was watching Star Trek on FX Last night and I couldn’t help but get lost in Chris Pine’s dreamy eyes wonder how Chris Pine wasn’t already passing Chris Evans and Ryan Reynolds in the “interchangeable hunk actor who won’t blow you away but can still act circles around Paul Walker” category. Turns out he’s already on pace to become the American Sam Worthington and Daniel Craig in regard to securing franchises, but there’s one little thing that might get in his way of becoming an A-lister.
He allegedly doesn’t like paying his agents, according to his former agency, so they’re setting their phasers to sue.
According to the lawsuit, SDB agreed to represent the actor in 2002 when he had no experience and “nobody was willing to touch Pine,” and the agency then helped him land film parts that led to the coveted Captain Kirk role in the Star Trek reboot and Paramount’s planned reimagining of the Jack Ryan franchise. Pine allegedly has stopped paying the standard 10 percent commission on Trek and other projects and has not responded to a request by the agency to acknowledge his financial obligations.
“Through this lawsuit, SDB seeks to not only recover its commissions on millions of dollars that Pine has already earned, but also the millions of dollars that Pine will continue to earn as a result of SDB’s prior hard work and dedication to Pine’s career,” the lawsuit states. (Via The Hollywood Reporter)
Pine’s latest film This Means War, with the super awesome Tom Hardy, opens this weekend, and SDB claims that Pine still owes them more than $107,000 in commissions for that film alone. In fact, THR offered an interesting breakdown of what Pine makes and what he allegedly hasn’t paid.
- Pine will potentially make more than $5 million on the second and third Star Trek films, but the first wasn’t listed in SDB’s complaint, so they may not be seeking or receiving any compensation on those potential blockbusters. Only $5 million, though… might explain why he has a new agent.
- The actor received $3 million for Unstoppable, which seems awfully generous.
- In case you don’t recall – I don’t, because I’m too handsome to furrow my brow – Pine will star as Jack Ryan in Paramount’s new reboot of the Tom Clancy character, and he’ll make more than $24 million on three films. SDB wants the standard 10% commission on those movies.
- Pine is also starring in Welcome to People, a DreamWorks pic about a guy who has to deliver an inheritance to a sister that he’s never met, and Pine can possibly earn more than $5 million for that, depending on its success. It also stars Olivia Wilde, so Welcome to People has my $12.
I guess the moral of the story is that Chris Evans would never screw over his agents.
(Banner via Shutterstock and RoidRanger.)