USA/NEW ZEALAND: THE MAKERS OF THE BRITISH COMEDY "THE FULL MONTY" FACE A COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT SUIT

Record ID: 435037

  • Title: USA/NEW ZEALAND: THE MAKERS OF THE BRITISH COMEDY "THE FULL MONTY" FACE A COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT SUIT
  • Date: 3rd March 1998
  • Summary: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (MARCH 2, 1998) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) INTERIORS HMV RECORDS / FULL MONTY CLIPS ON GIANT SCREENS .STAFF STACKING SHELVES OF FULL MONTY VIDEO STEVE HUISON (WHO PLAYED DEPRESSIVE IN "THE FULL MONTY") SIGNING VIDEOS
  • Embargoed: 18th March 1998 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES/ WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND
  • City:
  • Country: New Zealand Usa
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA857J6SYGBOJZFHETK8J5E6KOD
  • Story Text: The makers of the hit British comedy "The Full Monty" are facing a multi-million dollar copyright infringement suit by the New Zealand authors of a 1987 play, "Ladies Night", which was based on a similar theme.

    Just one day before Oscar ballots are mailed and two weeks before the video release of the low-budget, high profile film "The Full Monty," a plagiarism suit was filed against the film's production company, Fox Searchlight Pictures.

    Playwrights Anthony McCarten and Stephen Sinclair claim certain scenes in the hit film are "strikingly similar" to "Ladies Night", a play they wrote and staged in New Zealand a decade ago.

    Speaking in Wellington, McCarten said he had been very shocked to see the similarities between "The Full Monty" and "Ladies Night." He said he had been encouraged to file the suit when he had received letters from people who said they "smelt a rat." Named in the lawsuit are scenes where the working men turned stippers are presented with "very fancy G-strings" and one where an overweight character decides not to dance with his mates.

    The lawsuit is poorly timed for "The Full Monty," which has been nominated for the Academy Awards for best picture, best original screenplay, best director, and best score.

    Academy voters have shied away from films surrounded by controversy in the past.A similar suit was brought against Steven Spielberg's "Amistad," whose one Oscar nomination many industry insiders attribute to its legal problems.

    Bert Fields, an attorney for Fox Searchlight Pictures, said the film and the play were based on the "same basic idea," but added: "if you read this play and saw that wonderful film you would know that one was not copied from the other." "The Full Monty" was made for the relatively small sum of 3.5 million United States (U.S.) dollars and has gone on to gross more than 200 million U.S.dollars.

    The lawsuit must prove that the playwrights' idea was unique, that the makers of "The Full Monty" did not have access to "Ladies Night," that the film contains substantial similarities, and the film was not independently created.
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