Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino has been accused of copyright infringement, along with distributors The Weinstein Company and Columbia Pictures, in their 2012 film Django Unchained. The lawsuit was filed earlier this week in Washington DC by father and son duo Oscar Colvin Jr. and Torrance J Colvin, claiming that the filmmakers had used large parts of their screenplay titled Freedom, Variety reported.
The Oscar-winning Django Unchained was set in the late 1850s in the Old West, and raked in $425 million (approximately Rs 2,820 crore) at the box office. The suit claims that the Colvins registered their script with the Writers Guild of America in 2004, took it to various agencies and also put it up on a script website.
“There are a plethora of similarities between ‘Freedom’ and ‘Django Unchained,'” the suit claims. “Defendants would call them coincidences, however, the intentional use of our work is neither an accident nor coincidence.” The Colvins said key plot points were lifted from their script and have asked for compensation worth millions of dollars, though the exact figure has not been disclosed.
Representatives for the filmmaker and distributors have not commented yet. Tarantino himself was at the centre of a copyright violation on Monday, with online group Hive-CM8 apologising to him for uploading his movie The Hateful Eight on the Internet a few days before it released.
Buy an annual Scroll Membership to support independent journalism and get special benefits.
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!