Shannon Nutt

This is starting to make me wonder if Mr. Cameron has EVER had an original idea of his own....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050817/...NlYwMlJVRPUCUl

For those not familar, Cameron was previously sued by Harlan Ellison - who claimed that THE TERMININATOR was a rip-off of a short story he did called "Soldier". Ellison won the lawsuit, and that's why all current prints of THE TERMINATOR contain "With acknowledgment to the works of Harlan Ellison" before the end credits now.

Troy Stiffler

AHahahaha.

It makes me angry that people can get away with suits like this.

A war against machines? OMG! Cyborg shapeshifters? WTF?

Who's up next? The Time Machine guy? The "orb" in T1 and T2 really reminds me of the time machine. Maybe we can argue that the off-screen perception of the machine seemed too close to his description. I can convice HG that we have a case. Anyone got a shovel?

MrE

Actually this will be lawsuit #3 --
"William Green, who alleged that he owned the copyright to the screenplay, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Cameron and others after the movie (T2) was released, but the lawsuit was ultimately dismissed."

Joe Molotov

Actually, won't this be lawsuit #4? Although it's not directed at Cameron, the woman that's suing WB because she claimed The Matrix ripped off her original story was also claiming that The Terminator ripped off her original story as well.

Shannon Nutt

I think the difference here is that the screenplay in question was given to Cameron a few years before TERMINATOR 2 came out. It's one thing to come up with the same idea as someone else, it's quite another to come up with the same idea shortly after READING the other person's idea.

Incidently, Cameron's defense in the Harlan Ellison suit was that his idea for TERMINATOR came to him in a dream! Probably fell asleep reading Harlan's story!

Mordred

I've never actually read Ellison's story. How close is the movie to the story? Is it basically a guy from the future is sent back to the past to protect a future leaders mom?

Fok

Who to believe?

Shannon Nutt

Harlan's story was adapted into an episode of THE OUTER LIMITS, if you'd like to check it out...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...67231?v=glance

Snowmaker

Any Titanic survivors still alive that can sue for the rights to their life story?

PopcornTreeCt

What a bunch of crap. If Cameron hadn't of made the movies so damn well none of these lawsuits would be happening. It's more than just a idea it's what you do with it. And Cameron deserves all the profit and credit for making it great.

jaeufraser

I don't believe that she filed a lawsuit over Terminator though, just against the W Brothers. That lady is a loon though, I think.

Popcorn, I agree with what you said completely though.

Cygnet74

uh, if they hadn't been successful, what would they be suing for exactly? why pay the expense of a lawsuit where there is no potential for remuneration? it's like when i was a young, aspiring filmmaker. i was using copyrighted material (songs) in my various films. why wasn't i worried? because what could i be sued for? i didn't have anything of value.

Deftones

I think the point is if they were bombs, and made no money, this lawsuit probably would never happen. Since they were huge hits, tons of scratch was made, and these plaintiffs see a way to cash in.

Cygnet74

well that's my point as well. why pay the expense of a lawsuit if there is no potential for remuneration? if someone stole your story and made a film about it, would you sue them if they were penniless?

DRG

If they really believed Cameron stole from them, why take so long to sue him? T2 came out in 1991! I know the article states they had a separate lawsuit with the person they hired to write the script, and that wasn't settled until 1998. But even then, that was 7 years ago!

On a side note, they came up with a concept and then hired a writer to actually write it? What a bunch of lazy uncreative shitheads. I think I'm going to come up with 2000 or so simple story concepts, copyright them in a big book or something, and start suing when someone eventually writes something similar to one of them.

Cygnet74

but in this case the screenplay was allegedly given to cameron a few years before making the film.

RogueScribner

Wasn't T2 basically just a retread of the first film? I mean, it was a bigger film, and there were two Terminators this time, but the basic concept remained the same: cyborg from the future comes back through time to kick ass and take names while the mother/son of the revolution against the machines fights to stay alive; innocent people caught in the crossfire. The fact that a robot could shapeshift is enough to sue over? It's not exactly an original idea.

DRG

What I'm saying is if they had a problem with T2 and it's similarities to their story, why did they wait 14 years to do something about it?

Kudama

If I had mad legal skills, I would track down the guys who own the rights to Collosus: The Forbin Project and Sue! Sue! Sue!

(Unless it had been agreed upon that Cameron was making a sequel.)

Cygnet74

what difference does it make? it was just as successful a film when it was released as it is now. there was just as much money at stake. the plaintiff probably heard that the woman who sued the wachowski's (and implicated cameron in her suit as well) was successful. assuming its true that he gave the screenplay to cameron before the film was made, wouldn't you want a piece of the action too?

jaeufraser

As far as I know, the woman who sued the W Brothers was not successful. Her case is still pending I believe, although a couple websites have trumpeted her successful win in court many times and turned out to be lying.

As for them...I believe everyone's questions arise more out of suspiscion that these people are trying to cash in on a load of BS, rather then them just waiting too long.

Of course, we don't have any real proof to support either way so it's all conjecture whether it's true or not. I will say that Sophia Stewart lady sounded like a complete nut though and I doubt she had any validity to her case. This one I haven't a clue but in general, I don't believe it til I see it. I don't think there are many movies out there that don't get lawsuits of this sort so I can understand the skepticism about these things as they seem to happen all the time.

PopcornTreeCt

Well, I understand the concept of suing someone for making lots of money but I also have morals. I'm not gonna try to take peoples' money because they have more than I do.

Cygnet74

what if james cameron read one of your scripts and a few years later made a successful film that, if nothing else, borrowed bits and pieces from it? you wouldn't cry foul? that the film is 14 years old is certainly suspect, but why condemn the guy before having all the information?

rw2516

In 1966 a movie was released called Cyborg 2087. In the future cyborgs are the slaves of humans. They start to revolt. The cyborg resistance is able to get into a human time transport facility and send one of their own(Michael Rennie) back to 1966. His mission: find the scientist who pioneered the technology that led to their creation and kill him in order to prevent their own creation. They would rather never be than live as slaves. The humans send two Terminator(yes, they are called Terminators) cyborgs back to 1966 in order to prevent Rennie from killing the scientist. Sound familiar?
How about this one. An alien big game hunter comes to Earth in order to hunt humans. He kills his prey using a flying frisbee creature/weapon. He keeps his kills hung in a shack in the woods. Jack Palance is a hunter who starts to hunt him, mono a mono. Palance lures the alien to his shack which he has rigged with explosives and blows the alien up. Sound familiar? It's called Without Warning(1980).

Fincher Fan

I had this brilliant fucking idea after watching The Terminator. I said they should make a movie where not one, but TWO Terminators go back in time for some reason. Because there are two Terminators, the movie should be called Terminator 2. That bitch James Cameron stole my idea.