X-Men's Big Court Showdown
The X-Men are facing their greatest threat yet.
Or so goes a new lawsuit filed by 20th Century Fox and comic book publisher Marvel Enterprises, who are accusing Sony Pictures and Revolution Studios of swiping key elements from Fox's blockbuster X-Men franchise for an upcoming Tim Allen superhero comedy called Zoom.
The copyright-infringement lawsuit, filed Monday in a federal court in Los Angeles, not only claims that Sony and Revolution are ripping off the mutant superhero theme, but are also engaging in unfair competition by pushing up the release date of Zoom from August 2006 to May 12 to get a two-week jump on X3.
"Zoom's release in May 2006 immediately before the release of X3 (or any release in proximity to the release of X3) is an unfair attempt by Sony and Revolution to manipulate the market and trade off the time, energy, resources and effort Marvel have invested in X-Men," court papers state.
The complaint seeks monetary damages as well as an injunction forcing Sony to postpone Zoom's opening. Fox and Marvel are also asking for a court order requiring Sony to strip Zoom's screenplay of any X-Men-like material.
Sony, Revolution and their attorney, Bert Fields, declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Zoom, which hasn't begun shooting, is based on a graphic novel by Jason Lethcoe and stars the Home Improvement thesp as Jack, aka Captain Zoom, a former superhero called out of retirement to train a group of teen wannabes with mutant powers at a private academy to battle bad guys. The only problem is he's lost his own powers. The film costars Courteney Cox as a scientist with the secret agency in charge of the superhero school and Chevy Chase as the head of the agency.
In Fox and Marvel's view, Zoom's storyline is way too similar to the premise of its X-Men series, which stars Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier who teaches a group of mutants at a private academy how to utilize their special powers to defeat an evil mutant terrorist organization.
Fox and Marvel say that while Lethcoe's graphic novel does not bear any resemblance to the X-Men movies or comic books, the latest version of the Zoom script contains parts strikingly similar to 2000's X-Men and its 2003 follow-up, X2: X-Men United, which have grossed a combined $700 million in worldwide ticket sales.
"Although Revolution [initially] changed some parts of the Zoom script [at Fox's request]...those few cosmetic changes cannot cover up the fact that Zoom continues to copy key elements, concepts, themes, characters and story lines from X-Men," states the suit.
According to court documents, Marvel and Fox recently warned Revolution in writing that it was infringing on mutant territory, but neither Sony nor Revolution replied.
The lawsuit also cites a letter from Revolution stating that any legal action Fox and Marvel decide to take is really an attempt "to monopolize...broad general concepts that have been widely and repeatedly used by others."
Since Hollywood is no stranger to turf wars, it's possible the plaintiffs could be placated if Sony simply moved Zoom's release date.
In any case, production is ramping up on X3 now that Fox has signed Rush Hour director Brett Ratner to take over from Matthew Vaughn, who dropped out of the project earlier this month. The third installment, which will reunite the original cast along with some new additions, most notably Vinnie Jones as the evil metal-clad Juggernaut and Kelsey Grammer as superintelligent blue behemoth hero known as Beast, is due to start shooting in August.
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