Hard as it may be to believe, someone really wants credit for writing Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. Oh, and half of all profits from the hugely successful film.

Bagdasarian Prods, run by the family of the critters’ creator, Ross Bagdasarian, is suing 20th Century Fox over multiple issues, most pointedly that of screenplay work by Janice Karman (who happens to be married to Ross Bagdasarian Jr) and the question of merchandising.

The family’s lawsuit claims that Karman wrote a script for the movie, which was then re-written, before Fox brought her in to polish the final version. She’s pointing to several scenes that prove she’s co-owner of the final script and therefore entitled to half of all the profits (not sure quite how they figure that given the usual treatment of writers in Hollywood, but then she is part of the family that owns the rights).

Plus, they’re after other financial arrangements promised but, they say, never delivered by Fox. And finally, they claim the studio didn’t take full advantage of the huge tie-in possibilities for the pic.

Fox might have seen this one coming – after all, it was the Bagdasarians suing Universal in 2000 that ended up with the studio getting the chance to make the first Chipmunks film.

“The Bagdasarians' claims are completely without merit. We look forward to resolving our differences and, in the meantime, we are continuing to move forward with this franchise,” Fox’s legal team said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

This one’s going to run for a while, we fear. And we’ll be especially unhappy if Fox goes through with their plan to keep making Chipmunks movies…