Movies
Writer Putting the Breaks on Uni’s ‘Death Race’?
It looks as if Universal Pictures remake of Death Race could be crashing before it even hits the wall. Writer Adam Stone is in a race to stop the release of Universal’s film, which is slated to hit theaters everywhere this Friday. The reason? Plagiarism. Read on for the story and watch for news as it develops.
Stone claims in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court that the upcoming Universal thriller is based on a script he pitched to the film’s producer-director Paul W.S. Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt. He seeks a court order stopping the film’s release.
Stone claims that after the producers passed, Bolt made and kept a copy of his screenplay, titled “Joust,” to use as a “blueprint” for Anderson’s revision of the script for “Death Race.”
While “Death Race” is purported to be a remake of the 1975 film, “Death Race 2000,” Stone contends in his lawsuit that it actually is based on “Joust” and that there are at least 39 elements in the soon-to-be released film that mirror his screenplay.
Universal, which is a defendant in the lawsuit, declined comment on the lawsuit.
“Death Race,” which stars Jason Statham and Joan Allen, is set for release FridayAug. 22. Stone is asking the court to stop the release of the film.
“Experience in other cases has shown that unless such orders are issued, defendants will simply continue to exploit the infringing motion picture in all media and by all methods at their disposal,” the lawsuit states.
Stone seeks unspecified damages.
After pulling in $28 million at the worldwide box office this month, director (and star) Dev Patel’s critically acclaimed action-thriller Monkey Man is now available to watch at home.
You can rent Monkey Man for $19.99 or digitally purchase the film for $24.99!
Monkey Man is currently 88% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with Bloody Disgusting’s head critic Meagan Navarro awarding the film 4.5/5 stars in her review out of SXSW back in March.
Meagan raves, “While the violence onscreen is palpable and painful, it’s not just the exquisite fight choreography and thrilling action set pieces that set Monkey Man apart but also its political consciousness, unique narrative structure, and myth-making scale.”
“While Monkey Man pays tribute to all of the action genre’s greats, from the Indonesian action classics to Korean revenge cinema and even a John Wick joke or two, Dev Patel’s cultural spin and unique narrative structure leave behind all influences in the dust for new terrain,” Meagan’s review continues.
She adds, “Monkey Man presents Dev Patel as a new action hero, a tenacious underdog with a penetrating stare who bites, bludgeons, and stabs his way through bodies to gloriously bloody excess. More excitingly, the film introduces Patel as a strong visionary right out of the gate.”
Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, Monkey Man stars Patel as Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.
Monkey Man is produced by Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions.
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