Remember the 2012 thriller The Cabin in the Woods? Of course you do. It was a freaking fantastic movie. It scored a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, made over $65 million on a $30 million budget, and managed to scare you and make you laugh at the same time.
Superhuman Joss Whedon produced and co-wrote the script for the film with director Drew Goddard. Like we said, it was a huge hit and they should be proud of what they created.
But wait, did they create it? Or did self-publishing author Peter Joseph Gallagher create it? That’s what he claims in his complaint, which was filed earlier this week in California federal court. Whedon, Goddard and Lionsgate are all defendants in this copyright lawsuit.
Gallagher claims Goddard and Whedon stole the idea for the movie from his 2006 novel The Little White Trip: A Night In the Pines. He’s asking for $10 million in damages.
Why? Because he feels there are a lot of similarities between his novel and the film. For example, both feature a group of young people who take a trip to a remote cabin. While staying at the cabin the group is terrorized, and they are unknowingly playing characters in a real-life horror show.
And the lawsuit even points out that the names of the characters are similar…
“Even the names of the lead characters are similar. In the Book, the lead female blonde and brunette characters are named Julie and Dura respectively, whereas in the Film they are named Jules and Dana. Similarly, the cabin in the Book is called the “Brinkley Cabin,” whereas it is the “Buckner Cabin” in the Film.”
Gallagher admits his book didn’t sell a lot of copies; however, he points out that he sold the novel on the Venice Beach boardwalk and on Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade.
“[The defendants] currently reside and operate out of Santa Monica, California, a short distance from where the Book was sold.”
So why is he just now coming out with this lawsuit? We are not sure, but it seems a little strange to us. Both Whedon and Goddard have been extremely successful in Hollywood. Stealing some idea from a novel being sold on the street doesn’t sound like something they would need to do.
We’ll see what happens.
