An Irish-made film starring Mel Gibson and Sean Penn, which is at the centre of claims that its producers attempted to defraud Revenue, has received a €5.618m tax break under the section 481 scheme, it has emerged.

The size of the tax break received by The Professor and the Madman, a film about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, has emerged in filings from an ongoing court case in California over ownership of the script’s copyright. Revenue does not usually disclose the exact amounts claimed under section 481.

Transcripts of interviews with the film’s producers, unsealed by the court last week, show tensions between the director Farhad Safinia and the film’s producer, Voltage Pictures, arose just a fortnight into the shoot over the number