One of the four producers of “The Hurt Locker” may have ruined the film’s chance to win the Best Picture trophy in this year’s Academy Award.

Nicholas Chartier admittedly sent out emails that campaigned for his movie but also stated that Academy members should not vote for “a $500 million” which is an apparent reference to “Avatar”, the movie’s toughest competitor among the other 8 nominees.

According Leslie Unger, spokeswoman for the Academy, the emails sent out by Chartier violated a rule that prohibits any “attempt to promote any film or achievement by casting a negative light on a competing film or achievement.”

The first email was sent on February 19. The Los Angeles Times was able to post the next batch emails that gave specific instructions to the emails’ readers to place “The Hurt Locker” at number one and “Avatar” at number 10 in the ballot for selecting the Best Picture winner.

According to Summit Pictures, distributor of “The Hurt Locker”, they were not aware of the emails sent by Chartier and just found out about them when they were notified by the Academy early this week.

Paul Pflug, spokesman for Summit, said that Chartier is now working together with the studio and the Academy to apologize for his actions after he was confronted by them.

In an email sent to The Associated Press, Chartier said: “My naivete, ignorance of the rules and plain stupidity as a first-time nominee is not an excuse for this behavior and I strongly regret it.”

Possible consequences include taking away Chartier’s Oscar tickets and even worse, removing “The Hurt Locker” from the list of Best Picture nominees, which is highly unlikely considering that the deadline for the submission of the Oscar ballots would be on Tuesday.

The Academy will not most possibly extend membership to Chartier if “The Hurt Locker” indeed wins the award, a move practiced by the Academy to most Oscar winners.

The distributor of “Avatar”, 20^th Century Fox, refused to comment on the issue.