Flipping Out
When A&E‘s popular series Flip This House started its second season last Sunday, the show had some new stars, and the old ones — local boy Richard Davis and his crew from James Island-based Trademark Properties — are not happy at having been flipped off. Off the network, that is. Season two of the hit television series now follows real-estate development teams in San Antonio and Atlanta as they fix up eyesores and quickly sell them for a profit. When the show started in July 2005, Davis made much of how he’d shopped the idea around to various networks before settling on A&E in return for co-ownership and an equal split of revenues. The show was popular enough to merit being moved from a crappy morning time slot to prime-time Mondays, and it even spawned imitators, including Discovery Channel‘s Flip That House.
Two weeks ago, an apoplectic Davis (you know how he gets) filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit against A&E for fraud, breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets, and unfair business practices. Davis alleges A&E never contractualized their agreement despite repeated prompting from him, that he never sold the rights to the show, and that he never received a penny from the network. A&E says … well, nothing. So far the network’s declined to comment on the matter at all. The original show’s fan base has turned out in full support of Davis; one dedicated blogger even created a website, www.flipthislawsuit.com, to follow the development of the legal battle, or Davis’ side of it, anyway. In the meantime, Davis and Trademark Properties have flipped over to an A&E competitor, TLC, where they’ve created an as-yet-unnamed new series in the same vein as Flip This House. The show’s scheduled to air sometime in 2007 — presumably once Davis finishes combing through his contract. —Steven Zimmerman
Three’s Company
S.C.’s beefed-up tax incentives are looking better and better: New York-based Hyde Park Entertainment is filming two feature projects, Death Sentence and Asylum, here, and now Two Roads Entertainment has selected York County as the shooting location for its feature-length Patriotville, starring Justin Long (Dodgeball, The Break Up). Helmed by upstart short film director Talmage Cooley, the film’s expected to be in production through September. —PS
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