Studio Sues Student Over 'Identical' 9/11 Movie
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WENN.com
|
Friday, June 23, 2006
HOLLYWOOD - A student who used a bootleg script of Oliver Stone's upcoming 9/11 movie World Trade Center to shoot his own art project is being sued by studio Paramount Pictures.
Chris Moukarbel has distributed his 12-minute student movie, Points of Departure, for free on the Internet. The 28-year-old, who used student actors in his film, has just graduated from Yale University.
The lawsuit claims the "dialogue, plot, setting, characters and theme" in Moukarbel's short film are "virtually identical" to Stone's $60 million movie, which stars Nicolas Cage and Maggie Gyllenhaal and is due to receive its release in August.
World Trade Center follows two policemen trapped in the rubble of the Twin Towers following their collapse on September 11, 2001.
Paramount claims Points of Departure is a "poor-quality copy... (but) large numbers of people will see the Moukarbel film first for free and determine...that they do not want to pay to see the remainder of the WTC film at a theatre when it is released."
The studio is not seeking monetary damages from Moukarbel, but wants a court to permanently prevent his film from being screened.
Moukarbel has now removed Points of Departure from his website.
He says, "(I) never intended to profit from this artwork, and never have profited from it.
"This artwork was created as a commentary on the memorialization of a particularly historic moment."
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Photo(s) by Albert L. Ortega- © 2004- Warner Bros.- All Rights Reserved
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