In a step that is unusual even for litigation-heavy Hollywood, the maker of “Iron Cross,” a small independent film that has yet to find a distributor, charged in a complaint filed on Tuesday that the trade paper Variety had damaged the movie.

The suit says that the paper lured the film’s producer into last year’s awards race with the offer of an expensive promotional package, then savaged the film in a review. The suit against Variety, which is a unit of the media giant Reed Elsevier, was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by Calibra Pictures, the producer of “Iron Cross,” which included the last performance by Roy Scheider, who died in 2008.

The complaint, filed by Calibra’s lawyer, Timothy D. McGonigle, accused Variety of contractual breach, negligence, fraud and deceit, and unfair business practices.

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