Sunday, March 19, 2006
Ted Newsom v. Columbia Pictures, Marvel Entertainment Group, et al. Filed: March 17, 2003
Los Angeles County Superior Court, Los Angeles
The Case: Look out! Here comes another Spider-Man lawsuit.
The tangled web of litigation surrounding the hugely successful movie franchise continues to be weaved as Ted Newsom--the force behind such low-budget fare as Wolfman Chronicles and Monsters & Maniacs--says he was the one who dreamed up the big-screen story that served as the basis for the Tobey Maguire smash, and now the filmmaker wants his cut.
According to his petition, Newsom and John D. Brancato (who Newsom wants included in the suit as an "involuntary plaintiff") wrote a Spidey script and submitted it to the now defunct Cannon Films in 1985 and then revised it four years later.
Columbia, says Newsom, had access to the screenplay, which allegedly "bears uncanny similarities" to the final version, which is credited solely to David Koepp (the writer of such blockbusters as Jurassic Park and Mission: Impossible).
Newsom claims he didn't even get a chance to argue his case with the Writers Guild of America, which ultimately awards screen credit, because Columbia refused to submit his original script when it filed the Spider-Man documents with the union, and therefore Newsom was not allowed to request WGA arbitration.
That, the suit says, cost Newsom and Brancato more than $20 million. All told, he's seeking more than $30 million from the studio, which grossed more than $850 million worldwide with Spider-Man.
Marvel is named as a codefendant, because it coproduced the film.
A Columbia spokesman refused to comment on the suit, citing pending litigation.
Backstory: Spidey's legal sense has been tingling for the past five years.
In 1998, Columbia battled MGM and Marvel over movie rights, after Cannon went belly up. Sony-owned Columbia was finally granted film rights in 1999.
During shooting, a set accident claimed the life of a welder. After Columbia was cited by California for several safety violations, the man's wife filed a wrongful-death suit against the studio.
Then, the owner of several Times Square properties sued the studio after filmmakers digitally erased several billboards.
Meanwhile, Spidey cocreator Stan Lee sued Marvel, claiming the comic purveyor had cheated him out of Spider-Man movie profits.
Finally, Marvel sued Sony over a licensing agreement for some of its characters.
Lawsuits aside, The Amazing Spider-Man, the web-slinger sequel, will begin production in April 2003 for a summer 2004 release.
Status: Pending.