Dear John... Hustle & Flow director Craig Brewer with producer Stephanie Allain earlier this year in New York (Photo: STV)

The hell with it--I am calling this a New York cinema story by virtue of my alluding to its inevitability four months ago: Director Craig Brewer and producer John Singleton are officially at odds over the profits from their work on Hustle & Flow. But as L.A. Times go-getter Rachel Abramowitz reported over the holiday, the issue is not whether or not Paramount--whom Singleton virtually accused of stealing after a piracy scandal last summer--has actually paid Singleton what it owes him. The issue is whether or not Singleton plans to pay Brewer and his colleagues:

Singleton is contractually obligated to share his profits from the $9-million sale with the creative team, said Brewer's attorney Mark Litwak. "Paramount did pay the vast majority of the money eight months ago. Craig worked for modest wages, to say the least, and he was promised a very reasonable and customary share of the back end. The issue has been raised repeatedly with John over the last six months, and frankly a lot of people are furious with John. I find it amazing that so much of the goodwill that John had generated by going into his own pocket to get the movie made — a lot of that goodwill has been lost now that he hasn't paid."

Singleton openly acknowledges he has not paid his partners, firing back that he spent extra money on a better mix than Paramount was willing to pay for and he resents "people making comments when everybody's life has been changed from Hustle & Flow. Everyone has a career now." Litwak, on the other hand, who literally wrote the book on independent dealmaking in Hollywood, sipped his latte and loaded his gun:

"The fact that Craig has not been paid is not acceptable. This has been repeatedly communicated to John and his attorneys. John said numerous times in the spring that payment was imminent. Then it was everybody was going to get paid by Thanksgiving. Now it's the next holiday coming up."

The best part about all of this (or the worst, if you are Brewer and co-producer Stephanie Allain) is that the creative crew behind Flow has a shiny new first-look deal at a verrrry troubled and verrrrry twitchy Paramount Pictures, which is watching production of Brewer's follow-up Black Snake Moan like a hawk. I imagine that the director threatening to sue the producer is not a tactic lifted verbatim from the Rebuild Your Imploding Studio Textbook.

But hey, let us look on the bright side: Maybe if Brewer videotapes all of this drama, he can at least serialize it and sell it to Bravo. What?!? Singleton has a piece of that, too? God damn it! This guy thought of everything!

RELATED:
Craig Brewer: Black, White and Rich All Over (June, 27, 2005)
Singleton Vows to Whup that Trick--But Which One? (July 26, 2005)