Big fat legal action over Wedding

Vardalos (r) wrote and starred in My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Actor Tom Hanks and others have taken legal action against the company behind My Big Fat Greek Wedding, saying they are owed millions in unpaid profits.

Hanks, one of the producers of the 2002 comedy hit, accuses Gold Circle Films of providing "inadequate" accounts of the movie's box-office takings.

He and the other plaintiffs are seeking unspecified monetary damages and a full accounting under court supervision.

Gold Circle Films denied the claims and called the legal action "frivolous".

The independent production company added it had "fully complied with its contractual obligations" and had already paid the plaintiffs more than $44 million (£21.7 million) in profits.

According to the legal action filed on Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, the plaintiffs - Hanks, his wife Rita Wilson, fellow producer Gary Goetzman and the film's writer and star Nia Vardalos - accuse Gold Circle Films of a lack of transparency.

'Without merit'

Two other companies, Big Wedding Productions and Vortex Pictures, are named in the legal action, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

It claims Gold Circle Films put the total takings of the film - which cost just $5m (£2.5m) to make - at $287m (£141.8m).

Industry sources, however, put the total much higher, with one site - revenue tracker Box Office Mojo - giving a worldwide total of $368.7m (£182.2m).

Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson were both producers on the film

In a statement, Gold Circle Films said the action was "completely without merit" and that it had agreed to a full audit in 2005.

It said the action had been filed by the plaintiffs in "a desperate attempt to cover up their failure to initiate potential audit claims that have since been time-barred under the express terms of the applicable contracts".

Based on Vardalos' own life as a Greek woman marrying a non-Greek man, My Big Fat Greek Wedding was the surprise film hit of 2002 and spawned a short-lived TV sitcom.

In 2004 Vardalos signed a deal with Hanks and Goetzman's production company Playtone to write and star in A Wilderness of Monkeys, a comedy about a movie publicist trying to revive her career.

Based on Laura Zigman's novel Piece of Work, the film is reportedly scheduled for a 2008 release.