Silver and Goldman in H'wd vs Wall St smackdown (THRE)

By Nancy Tartaglione

The Hollywood Reporter Esquire blog calls the battle between Joel Silver and Goldman Sachs, "a real Hollywood-vs.-Wall Street smackdown." After six months of silence following the producer's $30 million suit against the bank, the latter has come out guns blazing, calling the allegations "implausible" and "absurd" in a bid to dismiss the case.

The filing accuses Silver of inventing legal theories and ignoring the terms of written contracts to mask dissatisfaction with a deal that soured as the economy tanked in 2008.

Silver sued Goldman Sachs and its Alliance Films and Momentum Pictures this past May, alleging the bank had made oral agreements to pay him $35 million - later reduced to $30 million - in exchange for a share of profits from films produced under the Dark Castle banner.

Six months of silence followed but the Goldman filing now argues: "That these sophisticated parties would enter into a series of oral agreements unconditionally requiring payment of millions of dollars and transfer of significant rights to valuable entertainment assets is entirely implausible. That some of these parties would then enter into a detailed written agreement for the transfer of the same assets to a different party without so much as mentioning any of the prior oral agreements is absurd."

Silver's attorney Bert Fields told THRE, "Let me put it this way, oral agreements are completely enforceable in California. Perhaps Goldman Sachs doesn't know that yet, but I think a jury will educate them."