While director Joss Whedon should be getting ready to celebrate the inevitable box office success of Avengers: Age of Ultron, a new lawsuit may be ruining his day. The lawsuit claims that Whedon stole the ideas for his horror-comedy film Cabin in the Woods from an independently published author, who is now suing for damages.
Whedon produced and co-wrote Cabin in the Woods with director Drew Goddard, who worked as a writer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and created and wrote the pilot for Marvel’s Daredevil on Netflix. The movie was filmed in 2009 and released in 2012. Both are named as defendants in the suit, along with Whedon’s production company, Mutant Enemy, and distributor Lionsgate.
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The plaintiff is Peter Gallagher, who claims that Whedon and Goddard got their ideas for Cabin in the Woods from his 2006 novel The Little White Trip: A Night in the Pines. Both works tell the story of a group of young people who plan a trip to a cabin in the secluded wilderness, only to find that it has been rigged up horror movie style by a secret organization. Gallagher also claims there are more specific similarities between each of the main characters, as well as certain scenes, including one in which the characters search through a basement full of mysterious artifacts, and another where they find hidden cameras in the cabin.
Gallagher is suing for damages in the amount of $10 million. Gallagher self-published the novel and says in his claim that he began selling it on the Venice Beach boardwalk and Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade, that latter of which he claims is only a short distance from where Whedon and Goddard live and work. He also claims that he was approached by several industry producers who were interested in the book, but does not specifically list Whedon or Mutant Enemy among them.
Lionsgate, Whedon, and Goddard are all yet to comment on the lawsuit.
(via THR)ย
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