A battle between veteran UK producer Jeremy Thomas and Grosvenor Park, one of the leading corporate players in the upstart UK tax-financing sector, is set to spill over into court.

The dispute between Thomas and the UK tax-financing operation headed by Don Starr is to go to court in December, marking the culmination of a two-year dispute. Lawyers for Starr's Grosvenor Park Media last month agreed to be bound by any findings in the trial, effectively speeding up proceedings.

Thomas and Chris Auty, formerly managing director of Thomas' production outfit Recorded Picture Co, claim they are entitled to 35% of Grosvenor Park's UK business after partnering with Starr at his first UK company, Grosvenor Park Management, in 1998.

Thomas and Auty are disputing Starr's assertion that the partnership was terminated because they failed to perform under the agreement - one of their main duties was to bring in business from UK film-makers. They claim that Starr, who was not available for comment, only separated from them after they appointed solicitors to file a list of concerns mainly relating to the running of the company.

Across the sector as a whole, UK tax breaks are estimated to have been used for a production volume worth a staggering $2.5m (£1.7m) in the last financial year, with operators typically taking a fee of around 2.5% of the film's total budget.