Gibson's Passion Writer Edits Complaint

Tue., Jul. 15, 2008 1:47 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

Gamma/Eyedea/ZUMAPress.com

If a higher power asks for a rewrite, what are you gonna do?

The scribe suing Mel Gibson for fraud over a royalty dispute related to The Passion of the Christ filed an amended lawsuit Monday after being told his original complaint "lacked specificity" and was taking a "chain letter" approach.

Benedict Fitzgerald, who with Gibson penned the Passion screenplay, sued the filmmaker in February for $10 million, claiming he was more or less screwed into accepting a lower-than-normal fee for working on the script after Gibson told him the budget for the film was very small and that he himself would not be taking any proceeds until he had compensated his crew.

Of course, the film went on to gross more than $600 million worldwide—seemingly more than enough to go around.

Meanwhile, Gibson's camp is looking to have six of the nine allegations leveled at him—including all mentions of fraud—excised from Fitzgerald's suit.

A judge ruled in May that all of the financial records pertaining to the Passion's budget and box office will be kept sealed and only made available to each side's counsel.