The Hollywood Reporter tells of a martial arts guy who claims he was ripped off by a large animation studio.
... Terence Dunn, who describes himself as a writer-producer-teacher-philosopher and says he "pioneered the practice of tai chi, kung fu and qigong in modern medicine," claims in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court that he originated the idea for a movie about a "spiritual kung-fu fighting panda bear" and met with the studio months before it decided to make "Kung Fu Panda" without him. ...
The way this works is, somebody has a hot idea that may or may not be close to a hit movie that is later produced. The somebody pitches the idea to a studio functionary, and we go on from there.
In most cases, the studio insists that the story pitcher go through an agent or sign a release-from-liability waiver or something. Usually this kind of thing doesn't get done over the phone.
If Mr. Dunn has some verifiable evidence that he laid out all the magic elements to studio execs who later hosed him, then maybe Mr. Dunn will see some cash money out of this. And if not, not.
Me, I heard early development tales about KFP way before the feature saw the light of day. When a DreamWorker told me about a martial arts panda I recall thinking: "What a lame idea...".
Which shows you how brilliantly prescient I am.
Meantime, "Shrek IV" only had a 19% drop weekend to weekend, and now stands at $147 million domestic. Smells like a hit to me ...
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13 comments:
There are stories like this from every studio.
Off the top of my head:
Scrat was her idea: http://ivysmedia.com/scrat/
Finding Nemo was his idea: http://forum.bcdb.com/gforum.cgi?post=39943
Monsters Inc was his idea:
http://articles.sfgate.com/2002-11-09/bay-area/17571035_1_monsters-pixar-mickey-mouse
Honestly, just type any (successful) animated movie title into google and "stolen" or "lawsuit" with it, and you're bound to find a story about it.
What have we learned here? Lots of people come up with lots of similar ideas, and everyone wants a piece when something is successful.
That horrible flop that Disney produced was really my idea. That means I owe THEM money.
Funny. Nobody ever claims their flop was ripped off.
They might have "stolen" that idea but it was the studio and not him that spend millions of dollars to take that idea to the screen...
Ideas are a dime a dozen. That is why an idea cannot be legally protected.
If you tell me the greatest idea I have ever heard and I go and turn it into a screenplay, you have no recourse. It is mine (in the form of a screenplay)
Steve, we were going to run this exact same story on OUR blog! We're not sure who to sue, the Hollywood Reporter or you! ;)
Sue THR. It has lots more money.
To be exact Shrek had a 38% drop, the 2nd weekend you are refering to is the memorial day weekend, in which they count 4 days, so comparing a 3-day opening weekend to a second week 4day Memorial weekend isn't that realistic in how well the film is doing, cuz it ain't doing that great really.
Actually ONLY a 38% drop is pretty damn good for a film you claim isn't doing "that great really".
The final numbers for S4, while not being as great as Wallstreet wanted, won't upset DW too much.
Locall: Opening weekend for shrek 4 (71M) was higher than any pixar film ever. And a 38% drop is pretty good, Shrek 3 dropped 57% over the same period and same time of year I believe.
Say what you will about the film, but you are 100% WRONG that it "it ain't doing that great really". It's a hit fool...
Im not a big Shrek fan (liked the first 2, I guess) but being a CG artist, I love that it's doing well.
Especially when Shrek makes the movies I work on look so GOOD! (I kid, I kid. I love my DW brethren)
Whatever happened to the Japanese company who did a show called "Simba" (I believe), who sued Disney over Lion King?
Whatever happened to the Japanese company who did a show called "Simba" (I believe), who sued Disney over Lion King?
You're thinking of Jungle Emperor, a TV show which aired as Kimba the White Lion over here in the 60's. Despite the similarities, I don't think Tezuka Productions sued Disney for theft.
However, Disney later filed suit to stop a screening of a 1997 Jungle Emperor Leo film at the 1998 Toronto FantAsia Film Festival.
^Ironic, since Osamu Tezuka, creator of Jungle Emperor (or as it's known in the States, Kimba the White Lion) was a huge fan of Walt Disney. He borrowed a lot from Disney films in order to create his characters (Kimba was created, for instance, in response to Disney's Bambi, while Astro Boy has more than a little Pinocchio in him). So one might say that there was a lot of borrowing on both sides. As someone noted above, you can't copyright an idea - just your version of it. My advice to those who wish to submit ideas to movie studios - COPYRIGHT IT FIRST. That way you'll at least have some protection if you're mad enough to try to sue them (and I use the word "mad" in every sense of that word).
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