Unless it wins big on Sunday night at the Oscars, Kathryn Bigelow’s film about a US Army bomb disposal unit member in Iraq will be best known for all the drama surrounding it off screen.

First, producer Nicolas Cartier was barred from attending the Academy Awards earlier this week, punishment for sending out e-mails to Academy members urging them to vote for The Hurt Locker and “not that $500 million dollar movie“, a reference to Avatar.  Apparently, promoting a film while slamming another is a major no-no in la-la land. 

Now a man who served with the US Army as a bomb disposal expert himself has launched a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the makers of the film, including Summit Entertainment which is the films distributor, claiming they cheated him out of “financial participation” and that Jeremy Renner’s character in the movie is based on him. 

Jeffery Sarver says that he was interviewed by Mark Boal in Iraq in 2004, who was imbedded in his three person unit for 30 days.  Boals experiences led to a story in Playboy the following year, which was then eventually adapted by Boal into the screenplay for The Hurt Locker.

Sarver and his lawyer also claim he came up with the phrase “The Hurt Locker” as well as the call signal “Blaster One” which was used in the movie.

Summit Entertainment (which is probably at this point just wishing it had stuck to films about sparkly, fang-less vampires) says it’s looking for a “quick resolution” to the claims made by Sarver.

Guess serving your country may turn out to be quite profitable, provided Hollywood gets invloved and you get yourself a good lawyer.

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