"Kingdom" Comes to Copyright Spat

A noted scholar is ready to unleash hell on the new 20th Century Fox epic Kingdom of Heaven.

James Reston Jr., a noted author and expert on the Crusades, is accusing the filmmakers of stealing parts of his 2001 tome, Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade, for the big-budget would-be blockbuster due out next week.

"The essence of it is that this is a film that is derived from the first 100 pages of my book," Reston tells the Associated Press.

And while the author hasn't declared whether he'll get medieval on Fox with a copyright infringement suit, he's leaving open his legal options.

"I think that's in the hands of the attorneys," he added.

A rep for Fox calls Reston's accusations "baseless and without merit."

Gladiator director Ridley Scott's latest bloody gambit for Oscar, Kingdom of Heaven stars Orlando Bloom as Balian of Ibelin (try saying that three times fast), a young Jerusalem blacksmith who becomes a knight and organizes a popular rebellion to expel foreign Crusaders from the Holy Land. The film also features Jeremy Irons, Liam Neeson, David Thewlis and Edward Norton.

Reston says the valiant story wasn't dreamed up by Hollywood hacks, but instead was lifted from his years of painstaking research--and he claims to have proof.

Reston tells AP that veteran producer and former Tri-Star Pictures chairman Mike Medavoy optioned Warriors of God in November 2001 shortly after it's publication and sent a letter to the Oscar-nominated Scott about adapting the story to the big screen, describing it as cross between Lawrence of Arabia and A Man for All Seasons.

The director, who had commissioned development on another historical epic at the time as a companion to the Best Picture-winning Gladiator, nixed the idea. But, Reston claimes, within a few months a script for Kingdom appeared with striking parallels to the beginning chapters of Warriors, which deals with a "noble's quest" to redeem the Holy Land from the Infidel that resulted in a battlefield encounter between Muslim hero Saladin and English King Richard the Lionheart during the Third Crusade.

Reston believes Scott & Co. ditched their previous historical script and swiped elements from Warriors.

"Miraculously, the screenwriter came up with this concept based on Warriors of God in a two-week timeframe," Reston tells AP. "They claim they never read the book and that's laughable."

Kingdom is credited to William Monahn. It is his first produced screenplay, although he has three other projects projects in various stages of development: Jurassic Park IV, the Martin Scorsese-Leonardo DiCaprio-Matt Damon crime flick The Departed and the historical war epic Tripoli, which will star Keanu Reeves and Ben Kingsley. Scott has been mentioned as a possible director for the latter.

Medavoy, who no longer has an option on Reston's book, did not comment, saying he has not read Monahan's script.

In the opinion of New York-based entertainment attorney Howard Leib, Reston's case is a matter of interpretation.

"It comes down to whether or not the similar issues are similar because of historical fact or because of style and expression," Leib explained to E! Online. "If the similarities are all people from history and real dates and real locations, then there's no case there. But if the similarities have to do with interpretation, then in any novelization of history you're going to see a fair amount of creative expression. That's the question. If [Scott and his writers] used his book as a jumping off point?then what they wrote is a derivative work."

Of course, Reston might have a reason other than potential litigation to go public with his beef--that is, to sell more books. Variety reports that the author sent out a press release offering to lend his expertise on the Crusades to media outlets. The statement also hypes Kingdom of Heaven as "sure to be one of the summer's first major blockbusters!"

But Reston took umbrage at the notion of trying to capitalize on the movie's release.

"I think you've got it upside down. It was the movie that latched onto the book. It's my view that the whole movie is based on my book," he tells Variety.

Let the battle begin. Kingdom of Heaven invades theaters May 6.