Indeed, it would seem that the script and the deal are ill-gotten gains. Apparently, minutes after officially making the plea in court (while still in court), Madrigal slapped Vazquez with a lawsuit of his own, saying that Vazquez had no right to sell the screenplay to Aloe in the first place, and he wants the rights to the script returned. But in giving the feds his cut of the profits, he may have decreased his jail time from 40 years down to 7. He also had to plead guilty for money laundering and extortion. Throwing a bit of a wrench into all of this is that the US government came down on Vazquez for his various illegal activities, leading him toĬop a plea deal in which he gave the US government the 10% royalty rights in the screenplay. Filming was expected to happen later this year. From there, Aloe was able to get the wheels moving on a full on production, with famed pastor Joel Osteen acting as exec producer. Vazquez, script in hand, somehow then sold the screenplay to a Hollywood production company now known as Aloe Entertainment (then known as Proud Mary Entertainment) for close to $1 million with a 10% royalty on any profits from the movie. In exchange for his release, Madrigal agreed to hand over the rights to the script. This was done by having some “associates” kidnap Madrigal’s brother, in Mexico. Jorge Vazquez Sanchez, who federal prosecutors claimed was a money launderer for a Mexican drug cartel, apparently hatched a plan to extort the script out of Madrigal. Okay, so now Madrigal has the script… but not for long. However, at some point, Fitzgerald ran into some money trouble, and in defaulting on a $340,000 business loan from a company called Macri, he ended up giving the script to Macri’s owner, Arturo Madrigal.
Fitzgerald apparently wrote a “prequel” script to that movie, called Mary, Mother of Christ. You’ve got Benedict Fitzgerald, who wrote the screenplay for The Passion of the Christ, the controversial Mel Gibson movie that made over $600 million. Sinkdeep alerted us to the details, which seem to make a better story for a movie than the script at the heart of this story. Tue, May 15th 2012 05:21am - Mike Masnick