LOCAL

‘Pirates’ Producer Wins Suit: A federal jury in Santa Ana awarded $11.6 million Friday to the producer of the film “Pirates” in its lawsuit charging Universal Studios with breaching its contract to distribute the action-adventure-comedy. The jury awarded its judgment to Accent Films to cover damages the producer suffered when Universal killed the distribution agreement in November, 1983. Accent subsequently made a less-lucrative distribution deal with MGM/UA. The movie, starring Walter Matthau and directed by Roman Polanski, carried a relatively high budget of $29 million and performed poorly at the box office.