Canadian filmmaker Paul Haggis will not testify in rape suit next week

FILE: The Canadian Film Centre welcomed Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis for a master class with our residents. (Photo By Canadian Film Centre, CC BY 2.0)

LOS ANGELES — A scheduled deposition of Paul Haggis in a lawsuit in which the Oscar-winning Canadian filmmaker is accused of rape will not go forward as planned next week.

Attorneys for Haleigh Breest, a publicist who says he raped her in 2013, scheduled Haggis to give sworn testimony on Monday. But his attorney, Christine Lepera, informed her attorneys on Thursday the date didn’t work.

The lawsuit, filed in December, prompted three additional women to come forward with their own sexual misconduct accusations, including another who says he raped her. They aren’t identified in court papers.

Haggis has denied the allegations and countersued Breest.

Breest’s attorneys have asked for the deposition to be immediately rescheduled. They also criticized Lepera for requesting a settlement which was then characterized as extortion in the countersuit.

Lepera did not immediately respond to a request for comment.