 Following the financial failure of "Battlefield Earth" and other films independently produced by Franchise Pictures, "The Wall Street Journal" reported that the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation was probing "the question of whether some independent motion picture companies have vastly inflated the budget of films in an effort to scam investors".In December 2000 the German-based Intertainment AG filed a lawsuit alleging that Franchise Pictures had fraudulently inflated budgets in films including "Battlefield Earth", which Intertainment had helped to finance.Intertainment had agreed to pay 47% of the production costs of several films in exchange for European distribution rights, but ended up paying for between 60% and 90% of the costs instead.