The Good Life (lost unreleased comedy crime film; 1997)

Screencap from CNN story on lawsuits surrounding the film

Status: Lost

The Good Life is a comedy crime film written and directed by Alan Mehrez and starring Frank Stallone, Dennis Hopper, Andrew Dice Clay, David Carradine, Peter Dobson, Tony Sirico, Frank Vincent, Beverly D'Angelo, and Sylvester Stallone.

The film suffered a turbulent production, including crew and location changes, union pressure, moving the shoot from Miami to Mexico, and producer Mehrez replacing original director Barry Samson. The film's shooting schedule on the $5M picture was reduced by six days to stay under budget. Jason Dudek, the film's 2nd Assistant Director, said, "I don’t want to disparage anyone in the production or the team, [...]but it just seemed like we had bad luck. We were plagued by problems that really shouldn’t have been there."

Once the film wrapped production, star Frank Stallone and Mehrez feuded when a promotional clip reel featured Sylvester Stallone too heavily. Sylvester's part, a cameo role shot as a favor to his brother, was reportedly publicized as a bigger role than filmed. Sylvester filed a lawsuit against Mehrez for $20M, his going rate for a leading role at the time, and his brother Frank followed with his own lawsuit. Mehrez and his sister, Diane, also a producer on the project, then countersued the Stallones for $50M combined, even going as far taking the case to the federal level under racketeering charges. In August 1997, Alan Mehrez, in an interview with CNN, said, "the Stallone brothers have teamed up to destroy me, to destroy my sister, to destroy our company."

All parties settled the lawsuits out of court by July 13, 1999, two years after the film had wrapped production. The terms of the settlements have never been made public. While the film has never been released in any form, CNN aired a story discussing the lawsuits which included a few clips from the movie.