Celador 'mulls William Morris lawsuit'

Production firm Celador is reportedly considering suing Hollywood talent agency William Morris over the deal that brought Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? to the US in 1999.

Last week, the British company was awarded $269.4m (£178m) in damages from Disney's ABC network after a six-year legal battle over an unpaid share of the profits from the popular show.

During the trial, Disney tried to argue that any blame in the case should rest with William Morris, which handled original negotiations for the Millionaire deal on Celador's behalf.

In his closing argument, Disney's lawyer Michael Katz told the court: "If Celador Productions is unhappy with the deal they got, they have got the wrong defendant here."

According to The Guardian, Celador and the Los-Angeles based William Morris previously reached a "tolling agreement", which meant that their individual dispute would be put on hold until resolution of the case against Disney.

Fresh from the legal victory last week, Celador founder Paul Smith is now thought to be considering options for recouping the millions of dollars in fees paid to William Morris.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? has proved a global phenomena since Smith first developed the concept in 1998 with radio station director David Briggs and comedy writers Mike Whitehall and Steve Knight.

The show has been syndicated to over 100 countries around the world, but the US version has proved the most enduring and, crucially, the most lucrative.

In the legal case, Disney was ordered to pay Celador 50% of the profits from broadcasting and merchandising Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in the US over the past decade.

Celador's US lawyer Roman Silberfeld claimed that the production firm was paid just $21m in package fees from the US version of Millionaire, while William Morris earned $16m for setting up the deal.