A legal conflict is brewing over one of the summer's biggest potential blockbuster movies, the Crusades epic Kingdom of Heaven, with a prominent author accusing the film's director, Ridley Scott, and the studio releasing the film, 20th Century Fox, of stealing his research for their screenplay.
In a letter this month, a lawyer for James Reston Jr, author of Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade, accused the studio of violating American and international copyright law by using "events, characters, scenes, descriptions and character tensions" in the film that were "strikingly similar" to his narrative history.
A lawyer for the studio responded last week with a five-page rebuttal that said the creators of Kingdom of Heaven, to be released on May 6, had never read Reston's book. The letter added: "The works are not substantially similar. In fact they are completely dissimilar, other than having in common some elements that are historically authentic."
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2005/04/01/2003248691
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