Tyrese Gibson’s Voltron Entertainment is suing Teddy Pendergrass’ widow over the rights to the late singer’s life story.
via: Radar Online
Pendergrass’ widow accused Tyrese of being a “poor businessman” and “incapable of getting a movie made” as part of their war over the late singer’s biopic.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, Joan Pendergrass attacked Tyrese in her recent filing demanding the actor’s lawsuit be thrown out of court.
As we previously reported, earlier this year, Tyrese sued Joan claiming she cut him out of Teddy’s biopic after he invested a 6-figure sum into the project.
In his lawsuit, Tyrese claimed his company Voltron Entertainment worked out a deal with Joan in 2011 to secure the rights to Teddy’s life.
Per the deal, Tyrese claimed he had the right to make a book and a movie in exchange for him investing in the projects.
The actor claimed he invested $450k of his own money over the past decade working on the biopic. He said in 2022 Joan refused to extend the deal despite his alleged massive investment.
Tyrese filed the lawsuit which accused Joan of improperly cutting him out of the projects.
He demanded $1 million in damages.
As we first reported, Joan denied all allegations of wrongdoing. She admitted a deal had been signed with Voltron in 2011 which gave the company the rights to Teddy’s life story.
However, she claimed that Tyrese signed away his rights to Teddy’s life story in a deal the actor signed with Warner Bros in 2019. She said the agreement Voltron made with Warner Bros assigned Teddy’s life rights to Warner Bros and cut Tyrese’s company out of the picture completely.
Joan denied there was a valid agreement in place and demanded Tyrese’s lawsuit be thrown out.
“Voltron’s claims are barred because Voltron seeks to enforce an unenforceable agreement to agree,” the filing read.
Now, in a newly filed document, Joan attacked Tyrese for bringing the lawsuit and criticized his ability to get things done.
She said that in 2019, Voltron and Tyrese had “proven incompetent at putting together a movie project about Teddy Pendergrass, and Voltron had still not exercised its option to purchase Mr. Pendergrass’s life rights and copyrights.”
Joan said she was ready to allow Voltron’s option to expire and move on. But that year, Joan said Voltron assigned its right under the Option Agreement to Warner Bros in exchange for $85k — “the same amount Voltron and HQ had paid Mrs. Pendergrass under the Option Agreement and its amendments.”
Joan said she was interested in the possibility of working with a “legitimate movie studio.”
She said she executed a fifth written agreement with Warner Bros, not Voltron, in 2019. Per the deal, the studio could extend the deal by paying a $25k fee.
In April 2022, Joan said the deal with Warner Bros expired and she did not extend it with the studio.
Joan said Tyrese’s claim she promised he could be a part of the movie as long as “Voltron and [Tyrese] were actively supporting and promoting” the movie project. Teddy’s widow said she never agreed to that term.
She claimed that in 2019 she had “reached the firm conviction that while [Tyrese] may be a talented actor and singer, he was a poor businessman and incapable of getting a movie made, and his association with the project was hindering — not helping — its chances of success.”
Joan said she’s confident Voltron’s lawsuit “will be exposed for what it is — a meritless and vexatious abuse of the legal process.”
She demanded the entire case be dismissed immediately.
Tyrese has yet to respond.
