The not-so-funny joke in Hollywood is that the industry is plum out of original ideas and relies increasingly on sequels, remakes and reboots.
One disgruntled film student thinks the industry can’t even insert fresh concepts into its sequels.
Former LAFS student Constantino Basile is currently suing the writers behind Men in Black 3 on plagiarism charges. Basile claims the film’s screenwriters took ideas from two of his own scripts he submitted as part of his school’s homework. Basile also is targeting the screenwriters of Prometheus, a prequel of sorts, and the original film Elysium on similar charges.
He hopes to wrangle $2 billion out of the MIB scribes alone courtesy of the suit.
Basile claims that his scripts, titled The World Of Jupiter and Crisis On Jupiter, were sold by his former teacher and ended up being used Men In Black 3, as well as having appeared, in part, in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium, and even spoofed by Steven Spielberg in his installment in the long-running SNL Digital Short series Laser Cats.
The young man’s chances in the courtroom appear slim. He submitted the suit without an attorney.