Literary Scout Who Claims to Have Discovered 'Twilight' Sues for Payment

It's almost insane how successful "Twilight" has become. With a relatively tiny investment - the first film cost only $37 million, which is only slightly more than your average Judd Apatow comedy - Summit Entertainment has built a franchise that has grossed over $1.7 billion.

Naturally, the next two films cost money to produce as well, but still a very small amount ($50 million for "New Moon" and $68 million for "Eclipse") compared to the enormous budgets of their competition.

One of the beneficiaries of this arrangement has been the production company Maverick Films, which produced "Twilight" and "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" (for a combined worldwide gross of over $1 billion). Now, they might have to lose a little bit of their take.

With that kind of money to throw around, production company Maverick and its head Mark Morgan could probably afford $155,000 plus legal costs.

That's what literary scout Nanette Shipley is asking for in return for bringing "Twilight" and "The Lightning Thief," a reasonably successful venture in and of itself (the film made $226 million against a $95 million budget), to Maverick.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that this is merely the money she was promised for discovering these properties.

Tricky bookmaking is sort of required in Hollywood.

In 2005, director Peter Jackson sued New Line Cinema, claiming the company committed fraud in handling its revenues and that he was consequently owed millions. Studios seem to have entire arms to create reasons why franchises that gross billions still aren't making money. One would imagine a public lawsuit on the matter will give Maverick reason to find the money somewhere.