Friday, Feb 27, 2009    Text size: 

Arrow, which is the owner of the “Deep Throat” franchise, claims Vivid prematurely screened scenes from the new Showtime reality show, "Deeper Throat," at AEE in January, which is based upon its remake of "Deep Throat," the Linda Lovelace movie produced in 1972 that is the highest-grossing porn film of all time.

Vivid plans to release the remake in March under the title, "Throat: A Cautionary Tale."

Arrow, Vivid and World of Wonder Productions struck a licensing deal in January 2008 over several production ideas spurred from the companies involvement in remaking the legendary adult film.

Vivid was supposed to submit an “exclusive first-look” copy of the finished movie to Arrow before showing it to anyone else, according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. But Arrow never received the copy, it claimed in the suit.

Arrow claimed the contract gives it 10 days to decide whether to release the film, and gave Arrow the option to buy the rights to the remake.

Arrow said Vivid's breach also fouled up the parties' reality TV show about the remake, produced by World of Wonder and is currently airing on Showtime.

“Arrow has kept its end of the bargain; Vivid has not,” the suit said.

Attorney Gary Kaufman of The Kaufman Law Group, which is representing Arrow in the suit said the breach in contract was stinging.

“We believe that Vivid’s actions constitute a blatant breach of the parties’ written agreement, and Arrow intends to aggressively protect all of its contractual rights,” Kaufman told XBIZ.

Arrow, in the suit, is demanding the profits from reality series "Deeper Throat," an injunction to stop further release of the film, and performance of the contract.

Vivid Entertainment did not respond to comment on the suit by post time.