Harlan Ellison Sues Declaring Fox's 'In Time' Rips Off Sci-Fi Story (Exclusive)

Sci-fi legend Harlan Ellison is trying to kill a higher-profile movie that's scheduled to be released in theaters the following month. The Hugo award-winning author has fileda suit against New Regency and director Andrew Niccol within the twentieth century Fox-distributed film, Over Time, starring Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried and Cillian Murphy.He's demanding an injunction to avoid the film's October 28 release and also the disposal of copies from the film. Ellison filed his suit on Wednesday in California federal court with accusations of copyright violation for the producers of Over Time, including Niccol, who's famous for his sci-fi films such as the Truman Show, Gattaca, and S1mOne. Copyright legal cases in Hollywood are extremely plentiful, but rarely effective because litigants typically find it difficult to satisfy the high burden of showing substantial similarity. Will Ellison's situation be different? Ellison states the brand new film is dependant on his multiple prize-winning 1965 work, "Repent, Harlequin! Stated The Ticktockman" that the complaint calls probably the most famous and broadly released sci-fi short tales ever. VIDEO: Justin Timberlake's 'In Time' Trailer: 5 Things We Learned For a long time, based on Ellison, he's opposed producer curiosity about adapting this story into film, however in late 2010, Ellison's company, The Kilimanjaro Corporation, joined into a contract with a 3rd party to produce a script in line with the story to ensure that it may be offered or licensed to some Hollywood studio. Now, Ellison states that Over Time jeopardizes the official film adaptation of "Repent Harlequin!" Ellison states the similarity between your two works is "apparent" and quotes experts for example Richard Roeper who've attended advanced tests and appear to think that Over Time is dependant on "Repent Harlequin!" Both works are stated to occur inside a "dystopian corporate future by which everybody is allocated a quantity of your time to reside.Inch Both in works, government government bodies referred to as a "Timekeeper" track the particular period of time each citizen leaves. The complaint continues to list out commonalities within the options that come with the world along with the plot surfaces -- the manipulation of your time an individual may live, the kind of dying felt by individuals whose time expires, rebellion by story protagonists, and so on. STORY: Comic-Disadvantage 2011: Justin Timberlake's 'In Time' Footage Wows Crowd Ellison limits his charges to fundamental explanations here, eschewing an evaluation of dialogue, for instance. It's challenging a read whether he's seen the brand new film, consider copyright law safeguards expression and never ideas, he could face a hurdle in showing illegal misappropriation unless of course the complaint is further amended. On the other hand, since both author and work are famous, he'll likely overcome a pitfall that outings up other copyright litigants in offering a theory about how exactly the accused had use of his work. The suit names Regency, Niccol, and anonymous John Does as accused. Fox isn't clearly named, however the prayer for reliefincludes a requirement the distributor be susceptible to an injunction. Aside from the injunction remedy, Ellison is demanding all profits in the allegedly copyright infringing material. The suit was filed with respect to The Kilimanjaro Corporation by attorney Adam Thurston at Drinker Biddle & Reath. We've arrived at to New Regency and when we hear anything, we'll update. E-mail: eriqgardner@yahoo.com Twitter: @eriqgardner Amanda Seyfried Cillian Murphy Justin Timberlake twentieth century Fox Film Over Time