"WHITE WOLF, INC. and author NANCY A. COLLINS sue SONY PICTURES, SCREEN GEMS and LAKESHORE ENTERTAINMENT for "Underworld" copyright infringement
Atlanta, GA, 5 September 2003—White Wolf, Inc. and Nancy A. Collins yesterday filed suit in US District court in Atlanta, Georgia against defendants Sony Pictures, Screen Gems and Lakeshore Entertainment, alleging 17 counts of copyright infringement for the film Underworld, set for release on September 19. White Wolf alleges that Underworld characters, theme and setting are based on White Wolf’s award winning games Vampire: The Masquerade® and Werewolf: The Apocalypse™, both set in White Wolf’s fictional World of Darkness®. Further, Collins alleges that Underworld’s script is based on her 1994 story Love of Monsters, published by White Wolf and also set in the World of Darkness."
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If anyone can sue the makers of the film it's 2000AD. A couple of years ago they ran a story "A Love Like Blood..." (I think) which was a retelling of Romeo & Juliet with werewolves & vampires.
Seems familiar?
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I hope this doesn't delay the movies release, because it looks like it will rock.
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Okay, I half saw this coming...but I reasoned it away by thinking "No way is this going to be anything like the WoD."
Isn't it based on some novels?
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Ok. Putting aside for the moment that nascent is an actual other word, and pretending that it is spelled correctly, this girl's name would be Innocent My Princess Desire Heavenly. There's not one word in there that she can use as a real name in the real world. They must be under the complete delusion that their child is the princess of some fairy tale kingdom, where she will spend her days awaiting the kiss of the handsome prince (Bolden A'Prince Hansom Manlydick?) to come sweep her away.
-on the name N'Ascent Mi'Princess D'Zyre Heavenly, BBN
Originally posted by Pseudo Nymh That was exactly what I thought.
Maybe I'm a dumbass, but I can't find this article on White Wolf's page.
It's right at the top, main article on the main page. Maybe your browser has the page cached?
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Originally posted by Gabriel Sony will win. They have more money.
Sony will win because Vampires, Werewolves and New York city are all public domain.
And White Wolf is not the first nor the last group of writers to put Vampire and Werewolves in the same setting(I believe they mention Werewolves in Bram Stokers Dracula). I'll wait until I see the movie, but I doubt it will have anything other then the vagues similiarities.
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"I'd call it his Elemental Pole of Wood, but he's a Fire Aspect, and I'm not going to call it his Elemental Pole of Fire because as far as I know he doesn't have that STD." - stephenls on Melissa Uran's drawing of Cathak Cainen's mammoth trouser snake
Good tactic. Maybe they will get Sony to settle so that the imminent movie release isn't delayed. Free money for White Wolf.
Of course, I know nothing of the law, but that would be the plot in the game I ran, if I played a game where all the PC's were lawyers and they hung about an office all day talking about cases and getting into hilarious, yet heart-warming situations, and the occasional office drama with that cute new lawyer we hired last episode.
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"If you are allergic to a thing, it is best not to put that thing in your mouth, particularly if the thing is cats" -- Lemony Snicket
Given that the press release specifically mentions that there are more than 60 points of similarity, I think it's more than a bit premature to say that Sony will "win" anything.
The WOD has quite a few unique organizations/elements/approaches to their depiction of vampire and werewolf society, and until we know exactly what their points of contention are, it's foolish to assume that White Wolf doesn't have a decent case.
Of course, foolish assumption is the officially sponsored hobby of messageboards everywhere, so...
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Originally posted by Bogie Good tactic. Maybe they will get Sony to settle so that the imminent movie release isn't delayed. Free money for White Wolf.
I completely agree. If the legal argument has merit today, presumably it had merit when:
-the screenplay was written
-casting was done
-filming was done
-editing was done
-marketing was done
What is different now? Well- the movie is about to be released and start making money. Hmm... curiously coincidental timing? You think?
:rolleyes:
Sony has the best corporate lawyers in the world. They will win easily. And somehow they'll probably end up owning White Wolf when it's over. Heck, that would be the easiest way for them to beat the lawsuit. A million dollars to them is chump change.
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"Apparently they are marketing this as a remake of Romeo and Juliet,"
You know what that says to me. It says they are sueing Sony without even seeing the Film. Wow hows that for jumping the gun, its quit possible that the movie is nothing like how it was marketed.
White Wolf is so gonna lose, sad because that means they are wasting money they could be using to publish more Exalted books.
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"I'd call it his Elemental Pole of Wood, but he's a Fire Aspect, and I'm not going to call it his Elemental Pole of Fire because as far as I know he doesn't have that STD." - stephenls on Melissa Uran's drawing of Cathak Cainen's mammoth trouser snake
Headed over to Aint it Cool and found the Comicon article about the movie:
Quote:
UNDERWORLD
Finally, it’s the underdog movie of the Fall. UNDERWORLD is the tightly-budgeted directorial debut from Len Wiseman (who cut his teeth working for creature designer Patrick Tatopoulos) about a centuries-old war between vampires and werewolves that heats up when a “Death Dealer” (Kate Beckinsale) aligned with the bloodsuckers has to protect a mysterious doctor (Scott Speedman) from the lycanthropes. Sony brought along Wiseman, Beckinsale and Speedman to talk up their little $30 million genre flick, and they did a decent job getting this skeptic at least a little more interested in this action/horror hybrid.
According to Wiseman, the script evolved over eight months, morphing from a straightforward werewolf story to the monster mash that it is now. Going on what I’ve seen in the trailer and what little I’ve read and heard about the script (one positive: everyone I know who’s read the script really seems to like it), I asked Wiseman if they’ve tweaked the traditional werewolf and vampire lore, to which he responded, “We have. We talked about it quite a bit because I’m a bit of a freak about staying (faithful) to certain rules, but, then, I think it’s important to stick to the big ones, and play with the smaller ones. In my opinion. Vampires can’t go out in daylight. I think that’s a big one. Werewolves transform… we dealt with the moon issue and all that. Silver kills werewolves and daylight kill vampires. We kept with the big ones. What I got rid of for this was the fantasy element. I do like things to stay as grounded as they possibly can with a concept like this. I can get my head around something that is based off of a rare blood disease, and that Michael (played by Scott Speedman) is this anomaly (of werewolf). All of that kind of stuff I can get into more. When it starts to get into doing this (makes a cross with his fingers) and crosses… and he can’t see his own reflection in the mirror… that I’m just not into too much. So, those kind of things we kept out of it. There are no religious overtones in it.”
Ok. Putting aside for the moment that nascent is an actual other word, and pretending that it is spelled correctly, this girl's name would be Innocent My Princess Desire Heavenly. There's not one word in there that she can use as a real name in the real world. They must be under the complete delusion that their child is the princess of some fairy tale kingdom, where she will spend her days awaiting the kiss of the handsome prince (Bolden A'Prince Hansom Manlydick?) to come sweep her away.
-on the name N'Ascent Mi'Princess D'Zyre Heavenly, BBN
Originally posted by rowport I completely agree. If the legal argument has merit today, presumably it had merit when:
-the screenplay was written
-casting was done
-filming was done
-editing was done
-marketing was done
What is different now? Well- the movie is about to be released and start making money. Hmm... curiously coincidental timing? You think?
:rolleyes:
That's what I'm wondering, too. Why is WW just now getting around to filing the lawsuit?
I'm guessing we're not going to be hearing from any WW reps on this one. The lawyers general tell the corporate types to keep their traps shut in these situations.
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