This is why we can’t talk to anyone anymore
Posted By Kathleen David on July 13, 2006
It was not a slow news day but someone thought it was news that Disney and the producers of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl are being sued by a screenwriter who claims that he had presented a screenplay just like this back in the 1980s and pitched it to Disney in 1993. Where this falls down for me is his assertion that he had “an eccentric pirate captain” in the mix. I think that will be the phrase that will kill this quickly since everyone and their brother knows that the screenwriters were writing for an Errol Flynn type and it was Depp that came up with Sparrow as we know and love today. Also the people in the suits in the early 90s are not the same suits that are warming the seats today. Disney went through a BIG personal change in the late 1990s. I really hope that the judge tosses this one out quickly with the court costs to the defendant.
This sort of stuff happens all the time and is the main reason that neither Peter nor I can hear this really great idea you have for anything we are working on or have worked on. Which in some ways is sad. That an idea that someone may have is vaguely like something that is already in the pipeline and therefore they will sue if their idea shows up. Ya know that sometimes people have about the same idea at the same time. Might have something to do with a news story that both people saw or something that someone said. Peter and I are working on a couple of ideas for some projects right now. Some of them might see the light of day and the others are fun to think through. But it is nothing I can discuss with anyone but him (with the possible exception of his literary agent). If I see a book along the same lines as what we are thinking I am not going to accuse the other person of stealing our idea even if it is someone we know or just happens to have the same agent.
There are times that we do present the idea to some of our friends just to make sure that we are not just repeating something that has been done before. We also know the people we tell aren’t going to run off with the idea(s). There has been one occasion where I told another professional I trusted about an idea I had for a book series and he informed me that a mutual friend had just sold almost the same thing recently. So I dropped that idea. The mutual friend had no idea that I was thinking along the same lines until told by the professional. He asked me if I knew he was thinking that way and I said honestly no I didn’t and I know that he was not “stealing” my idea just that our minds tend to work the same way. The series has done pretty well for them. So this can happen organically rather than someone out to steal one’s ideas and make a profit from them. I am not saying that it doesn’t happen and authors should defend their intellectual property to the nth degree. Remember I am friends with Harlan.
I really suspicious of this lawsuit is happening 3 years after the first film came out. Can he produce a copy of the script that he registered with the WGA back in 1993? Cutthroat Island was in production at the time can he prove he didn’t know about that film which does have a couple of similar plot points? Or did he just find a lawyer that is willing to take the case with the hopes of making some quick money off of Disney? Like I said I really hope this case gets a quick drop with a hard stop.
I am grateful that I do have good ideas that can be published even if I am not the author.
I remember a bunch of these things following Steven Speilberg. Right after Poltergeist someone claimed that THEY had the idea of a haunted house movie. I’m pretty sure Close Encounters and ET also had people grumbling that THEY had already come up with the novel idea of a movie with UFOs and/or aliens.
I’m glad that the movie I’m in has the never before attempted plot of people in a house surrounded by zombies.
I’m glad that the movie I’m in has the never before attempted plot of people in a house surrounded by zombies.
I’m sorry to advise you that said idea was used by George Romero in Night of the Living Dead. By happenstance, however, the movie is in the public domain so you’re good.
uh… Sasha, I think that Bill was using sarcasm there.
Anyway it was all my idea in the first place and I’ll be suing all that have ever used it as a plot device. 😉
Well, I’m not in the entertainment biz (except on the consumer end), but my opinion on these lawsuits being brought by people claiming that their ideas were, um, improperly appropriated is that if a suit is not filed within 90 days of the release of whatever property is the focus of the lawsuit, then the suit should automatically be dismissed with the most extreme prejudice allowed by the court.
If you even have the slightest of reasons to believe that your screenplay (or your song or your novel) has been stolen, then there should be no reason to hesitate in filing a lawsuit. Ninety days is a reasonable length of time to begin your legal action; heck, with regards to a movie, ninety days from opening day is more than enough time since previews/trailers are prepared months in advance (granted with a novel or song, you don’t have much choice except to wait until the property is released). But, there’s absolutely no excuse for waiting three YEARS to file a suit, unless you’re out to scam as much money as possible.