Eva Green: Actress wins High Court dispute over $1m film fee

French actress Eva Green has won a High Court case over her $1m (£810,000) fee for a sci-fi film that never got made.

The Casino Royale star sued White Lantern Films, saying she was owed the sum after the film collapsed amid a bitter dispute with producers.

The ruling follows a trial in January, at which text messages in which Ms Green called one producer a "moron" and another "evil" were revealed.

White Lantern claimed her "unreasonable demands" derailed the film, A Patriot.

On Friday, judge Mr Justice Green ruled that the 42-year-old actress was entitled to her fee, and dismissed White Lantern's counterclaim.

He said Ms Green "did not renounce her obligations" under her contract, as White Lantern had claimed, "nor did she commit any repudiatory breaches of it".

Mr Justice Green added: "There is no doubt that Ms Green did not make any conclusive decision or statement that she would not comply with her obligations under the artist agreement.

"Nor could anyone have reasonably understood her to have made such a decision."

However, the judge also described Ms Green as "in some senses a frustrating and unsatisfactory witness".

Giving evidence in January, the actress was asked about messages she wrote about the film-makers, including one in which she described two of them as "weak and stupid".

She explained by telling the court: "It's my Frenchness coming out sometimes. Sometimes you say things you don't actually mean. Of course they are not weak and stupid."

In his judgement, Mr Justice Green continued: "For such a perfectionist in her art, she was surprisingly under-prepared for her evidence.

"I understand the torment it must have been for her to have all her private texts and WhatsApp messages revealed in open court and scrutinised for what they disclosed about her true state of mind and intentions in relation to the film.

"She said it was 'humiliating' but some of her explanations for the language she used and the feelings she expressed - such as they were down to her 'Frenchness' - were not credible or adequate.

"However, I do think allowances need to be made for the heightened emotions that were clearly present when some of the messages were written and for the fact that these were assumed to be personal correspondence between friends that would never have been imagined to be seen by anyone else and certainly not analysed to the extent they were."