Along with Bill Cosby, the filmmaker was previously kicked out from Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences over his sexual harassment scandal.

• May 9, 2018

AceShowbiz - Roman Polanski plans to slap officials at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with aggressive litigation if they don't overturn their decision to kick him out. The "Rosemary's Baby" filmmaker was expelled from the organisation, along with Bill Cosby, last week (end May 4) over their sexual assault convictions, and the 84-year-old, who fled to his native Europe after being found guilty of raping a 13-year-old girl at a Hollywood party in 1977, feels sure his expulsion was "illegal."

"I am writing this letter to you to avoid unnecessary litigation," reads the letter, obtained by Deadline, written by the director's Los Angeles-based attorney Harland Braun and addressed to AMPAS president John Bailey. "Mr. Polanski has a right to go to court and require your organization to follow its own procedures, as well as California law."

The AMPAS' board of governors decided to kick out the two men for misconduct and Polanski's lawyer argues their decision violates the organisation's own Standards of Conduct rules, making the expulsions null and void.

The Polish moviemaker intends to fight for his right to stay a member and is now threatening fierce legal action if he isn't reinstated.

"The only proper solution would be for your organization to rescind its illegal expulsion of Mr. Polanski and follow its own Standards of Conduct by giving Mr. Polanski reasonable notice of the charges against him and a fair hearing to present his position with respect to any proposed expulsion," Braun wrote.

Meanwhile, Polanski has stirred up even more controversy in his native Poland after telling Newsweek Polska in a new interview the #MeToo anti-sexual harassment movement is an example of "mass hysteria".

"I think this is the kind of mass hysteria that occurs in society from time to time," he said. "Sometimes it's very dramatic, like the French Revolution or the St Bartholomew's Day massacre in France, or sometimes it's less bloody, like 1968 in Poland or McCarthyism in the U.S."

"Everyone is trying to back this movement, mainly out of fear," he added. "I think it's total hypocrisy."

Polanski has been a fugitive ever since his rape conviction came down four decades ago and still faces jail time if he returns to the U.S.