Blomkamp cleared of copyright lawsuit
According to film publication, The Wrap, a US judge has thrown out a screenwriter’s copyright suit against Oscar nominated South African director Neil Blomkamp.
The screenwriter, who’s name is Steve Wilson Briggs, accused Blomkamp of stealing his screenplay and turning it into the 2013 box office movie Elysium. U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton granted Blomkamp and co-defendants Sony Pictures, TriStar Pictures and others a summary judgement last Friday.
The judgement was against Briggs, who claimed that Blomkamp read a screenplay called Butterfly Driver online and turned it into his film starring Matt Damon.
According to Hamilton, while both stories were set in the future where the protagonists leave earth for a satellite space city, the similarities were abstract.
Briggs filed a lawsuit against Blomkamp claiming that the renowned director and writer read his screenplay on the script-sharing website TriggerSreet.com in 2007 and stole the ideas. The director maintained he had heard of the site and that the inspiration for the story came from his youth in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Elysium was released in August 2013 with more than $286 million gross globally for Sony. Blomkamp first burst into the mainstream movie world with his South Africa sci-fi thriller District 9 and in 2009, he was nominated for a Oscars for the film.
