A federal jury ruled Monday in favor of Disney, pronouncing a rapid verdict in a copyright case in which a man said that the company had stolen his ideas to make the film Moana.
According to the Associated PressThe jury based in Los Angeles only deliberated for approximately 2.5 hours before determining that the Moana The team did not have access to the screenplay of the writer and host Buck Woodall for his project, “Bucky The Surfer Boy”, which has never been developed.
Due to this determination, the jury – who was responsible for looking Moana In addition to looking at Woodall’s “Bucky” history created in 2003, an update of 2008 and a 2011 script – did not have to consider similarities between the two works in the case, according to the report.
Woodall said that around 2004, he gave his story to Jenny Marcick, the half-sister of his brother’s wife. Marcheck worked for Mandeville Films, which had a first agreement with Disney, as well as offices on Disney lot in Burbank, California, at the time of relations with Woodall. He testified that he had sent his follow -up equipment over the years and was struck by the similarities when he saw Moana When it was released in 2016. (The film would increase to nearly $ 700 million at the world box office.)
Disney
But, Marchich said during the trial that she has never shown it to anyone in Disney. In addition, according to the AP, the messages shared by the defense showed that she told Woodall that she could not help her with the project and finally ignored her follow -up.
In his closing arguments, Woodall’s lawyer, Gustavo Lage, underlined some of the things “Bucky” and Moana have in common. Like “Bucky”, Moana Follows a teenager during a trip to a canoe of stabilizer through Polynesian waters to save Polynesian land. It presents Polynesian belief in spiritual ancestors which manifest themselves as animal guides, and a certain number of specificities, in particular a symbolic necklace, navigation by stars, a lava goddess and a giant creature disguised as a mountainous island.
Disney’s lawyer, Moez Kaba, argued that things such as Polynesian tradition and “essentials of literature” were “not copyright”. Lawyers of the company would also have submitted thousands of pages of development documents, which Kaba supported showed each part of the process of Moana The creators John Musker and Ron Clements make the film.
“They had no idea of” Bucky “, said Kaba about Musker and Clements in his closing statements. “They had never seen him, never heard of it.”
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Disney lawyers would have refused to comment outside the courtroom after the verdict. Woodall’s lawyer, Lage, said: “Obviously, we are disappointed. We will review our options and think about the best way to follow.”
Disney
When he was contacted to comment by Weekly entertainmentLage has added: “Our position, for the moment, is to think about the verdict, the evidence, the decisions of the trial and to determine what legal remedies may be available for our client.”
A Disney representative did not immediately respond to EW’s additional request for additional comments on Monday.
The trial was filed for the first time in 2020, and Woodall asked for $ 100 million in damages, but a court decision last November reduced the range of Disney’s home video distribution, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, because the deposit would have arrived too late. This is one of the two proceedings brought by the applicant. Woodall also continued the mouse house in January, with the substance of its argument by focusing on MoanaThe rest is published in November 2024. This costume is still active.