Last night, my girlfriend (and TheRalphRetort.com contributor) Kat started telling me a story about Cabin in the Woods. She knew I was writing about Whedon, but I didn’t include it in the article because I was already done. We’d both went to see the movie together, since she’s a big fan of his. But as it turns out, it looks like he stole the entire thing from some struggling writer there in California. What goes around comes around, Joss.
I was actually writing this story yesterday, but something came up and I only got the other two pieces out. But this shit was just too good to let go by the wayside. Here’s The Wrap with more details:
“Comparing the Book to the Film, the plots, stories, characters, sequence of events, themes, dialogue, and incidents portrayed in the two works are fictional and, in many respects, the elements in the two works are virtually identical,” the complaint claims.Among the alleged similarities that the suit claims: “Like the book, ‘Cabin in the Woods’ tells the story of five friends (three guys and two girls) between the ages of 17 and 22 who take a trip to a remote cabin in the woods. The cabin’s previous inhabitants were murdered by the father of the family, who returns to terrorize the group of friends.In the end, it is revealed that the friends are being filmed and manipulated by persons behind the scenes, thus becoming inadvertent characters in a real-life horror show for the enjoyment of others.”Gallagher even says that the two main female characters in his book are named Julie and Dura, whereas in the film they’re named Jules and Dana.
Well, it sounds like you have a problem on your hands, Joss. I imagine you or the studio will shell out a couple million to settle this, but it’s still not a good look to be stealing someone else’s work wholesale, with no credit whatsoever. I guess when you’re an SJW the rules the rest of us play by don’t exist.
