The upcoming action film, "One Shot," stars Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher, a former military police officer who looks to solve a set of murders. However, it appears the on-camera fisticuffs have made their way behind the scenes.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a set of producers are currently entrenched in a legal battle over compensation rights to the film.

The lawsuit states that plaintiff Kevin Messick agreed to develop a movie based on the popular Lee Child novel with defendants Don Granger and Gary Levinsohn. However, after spending five years on the project together, Levinsohn and Granger allegedly began to string Messick along, withholding drafts of the script and eventually cutting him out of the equation entirely.

"Messick says he continued to work on the film until June 29, 2011, when he says he sent an email to Granger stating 'I'm getting the message loud and clear that you have no intention of involving me with [the film] am I wrong?' ... On August 13, 2011, Messick alleges that Granger responded to him in an email: 'I will work with you to get you credit on the film,' the complaint alleges Granger wrote. 'Whatever accommodation of fee we discussed was always predicated on if Gary and I received our deal on the film and I made that clear. We are not receiving our deal on the film.'"

Messick claims that he was to share credit and fees upfront with the duo, and is now suing them for compensation. Sounds like this may be a job for, uh, Jack Reacher?

You can read more about the lawsuit over on THR. "One Shot," starring Cruise, Robert Duvall and Werner Herzog, hits theaters February 18, 2013.

[via THR]