Remember that lawsuit I told you about over the Clint Eastwood movie, Trouble With The Curve? Not that long ago, either.
Nor is the plaintiff’s case. Running that long, I mean. According to Michael Cieply in the New York Times, the judge read, reviewed, screened and compared all of the disputed properties and:
“They’re not substantially similar,” said Judge Fischer, who said she had watched the film and read the scripts.
This is a summary judgment motion. Summary judgment: when either the plaintiff or, in this case, the defendant, believes he/she has enough proof for a slam-dunk decision without going through the hoopla of trial, he/she goes directly to the judge and asks that the case be decided on that motion.
These “he stole my script!” lawsuits are, as I mentioned in my previous note about this case, really hard to prove. (See previous piece for very short dissertation about ur-stories.)