Three Sue MGM, Local Screenwriter
For the second time in a month, a Hollywood film with a link to East Hampton has been the center of a plagiarism suit. The opening Friday of "Tomorrow Never Dies," the James Bond movie written by Bruce Feirstein, a part-time East Hampton resident, was dampened by news that three would-be screenwriters had accused him and MGM Studios of stealing their idea.
Just before Christmas, Steven Spielberg's film "Amistad," about a slave ship that landed off Montauk after a mutiny, opened amid accusations that his DreamWorks SKG lifted material from Barbara Chase-Riboud's 1989 novel "Echo of Lions." Her claim and an ensuing controversy have filled the columns of the metropolitan press.
While a judge permitted "Amistad" to open as planned, he agreed that Ms. Chase-Riboud's lawsuit could proceed. Mr. Spielberg and his wife, Kate Capshaw, have an estate in East Hampton.
Feirstein Script
Meanwhile, Jeffrey Howard, Chris Beutler, and Jay Schlossberg-Cohen are seeking $5 million in damages from MGM. In their suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, they claim that their script for an as-yet unproduced action film, called "Currency of Fear," is similar in 11 ways to "Tomorrow Never Dies," the 18th James Bond film and the first written solely by Mr. Feirstein.
"We believe this is a frivolous action and we will vigorously defend our position," said Craig Parsons, the MGM spokesman.
The three plaintiffs claim the most obvious similarity is between the respective villains, each a British media mogul who seeks to benefit by creating tension between the British and Chinese over the transfer of Hong Kong.
Called "Absurd"
Reached Monday at home in Santa Monica, Mr. Feirstein called the lawsuit "absurd."
"It's the Zeitgeist. These ideas are just out there in the air. A media mogul having something to do with Hong Kong in 1996, just before the turnover, is something 300 people could have come up with," he said.
The lawsuit alleges that Mr. Feirstein's wife, Madeline Warren, had been among the studio executives and talent agents who read the "Currency" script when it was being circulated in March of 1996. At the time, Ms. Warren was senior vice president for productions for New Regency studios.
But, her husband said she was then supervising the post-production of "Tin Cup" and production of "L.A. Confidential," and is usually too busy anyway to read the 30 to 60 scripts that cross her desk every month.
The records indicate she sent "Currency of Fear" to a professional reader and the report came back negative, calling it "amateurish" and an "incoherent mess," Mr. Feirstein said, adding that Ms. Warren passed on it as a result.
"She never read it but, more to the point, I was living in London and working on 'Tomorrow Never Dies' and I already had a story approved by MGM," he said. Ms. Warren is now an independent producer.
He dismissed other alleged similarities as well, including that a computer nerd character in each script was named Henry - Henry Jones in "Currency" and Henry Gupta in "Tomorrow."
"Do they think my wife called me up and said 'I have just the solution for your script: Call him Henry'? Why didn't they just accuse me of also using black type on white paper?" he asked.
Mr. Feirstein, who wrote the book "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche" while living in Sagaponack, said he recalled "people coming out of the woodwork saying they could sue me, that they had written first about men."
Mr. Parsons, of MGM, agreed, saying any successful, well-publicized project becomes "a target" when "the assumption is they've got deep pockets."
But, among professionals, there is usually "a certain level of trust," said Mr. Feirstein.
"I could go to Sidney Lumet, for example, and say I want to do a script about corrupt cops and drugs, and two years later he does a movie about corrupt cops and drugs. As a professional screenwriter, I understand there are many, many stories about corrupt cops and drugs."
"It isn't about plagiarism. It's about recognizing your own ideas in the marketplace," he said.