The Island Sued For Ripping Off Parts: The Clonus Horror
The producers of the recent movie The Island, which starred Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson are being sued by the producers of Parts: The Clonus Horror, a 1970s sci-fi movie. Myrl A. Schreibman and Robert S. Fiveson who made The Clonus Horror in 1979 claim that there is a resemblance between their film and The Island.
The fact that The Island was produced by DreamWorks and Warner Bros. and thus is a cash rich target is, I’m sure, purely coincidental. The pair allege that they had in fact screened Parts for Jeffrey Katzenberg back when he was an executive at Paramount.
Certainly the stories of the two movies are quite similar. In both cases clones have been raised for use in harvesting organs, they escape and attempt to shut down the plant. Fiveson claims that the similarities go “beyond the premise” and include “specific characterisations, specific lines, shot compositions and sequencing.”
Perhaps I’m being unfair but whenever I hear someone is suing a big movie, I tend to assume that money is the motive, not justice. The story is not unique to either film so claims of plagiarism there are pointless. Similarly the notion that The Island even has specific characterization is laughable. It wasn’t that subtle a movie. So that really just leaves the claim with specific lines, shot compositions and sequencing.
Most likely this claim will mysteriously vanish like most other cases along these lines.
Eoghann Irving is amongst other things the creator and Editor of Solar Flare. He has a life long interest in all forms of science fiction and fantasy and a pressing need to share this interest with anyone who will listen. Find out more at his personal website eoghann.com..
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