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‘Golden Compass’ Studio Sues Video Company
New Line Cinema, the studio behind the upcoming film adaptation ‘The Golden Compass’ has sued a video company over its documentary, ‘Beyond the Golden Compass: The Magic of Philip Pullman’ (which was due to hit DVD shelves this Tuesday) for unfair competition laws.
Dose.ca gives us this:
The lawsuit, filed the week of November 12 in New York District Court, claims Koch violated the studio’s copyrights as well as state and federal unfair competition laws in the planned release of the video, “Beyond the Golden Compass: The Magic of Philip Pullman.” The studio claims damages of at least $10 million.
“In a cynical and transparent effort to unfairly compete with (and) capitalize on the massive publicity and promotional effort attendant to the upcoming release of plaintiff’s film, and in complete disregard of plaintiff’s exclusive rights in the underlying materials, defendants have produced and are marketing and distributing the infringing video,” the lawsuit states.
Additionally, the defendants, which also include Schwartz & Co., XYZ Corps. and various Koch entities, allegedly created promotional materials for the video similar to New Line’s “Golden Compass” marketing materials.
Okay…this took me all day to think about due to the fact I thought my first reaction was completely wrong. However, I still don’t feel any different about this subject, and I’m just going to say it. Am I the only one who thinks this lawsuit is just a greedy attempt at getting more money?
This documentary will not be any competition for the film. The documentary is about the author of the best selling novel, and has nothing to do with the movie. In my opinion, releasing the documentary around the release date of the movie seemed like a smart idea. I have seen tons of movies that have gone straight to DVD that blatantly rip-off other films, like ‘Snakes on a Train,’ ‘King of the Lost World,’ ‘The War of the Worlds’ and I never heard of these films having lawsuits.
Anyways, I know I might be in the minority when it comes to this topic, but I just think launching a 10 million dollar lawsuit on a video company releasing a documentary that will be lucky if it makes one quarter of the money the film adaptation will make opening weekend in its entire DVD shelf life is just plain petty.
What are your thoughts?
No, Serena, you are not alone in your summary of thought.
While New Line watered down Pullman’s novel to make it “more accessable” to audiences (Pullman is well known for forcing extreme atheistic views in his books) in efforts to capture the “Narnia” type audience, it is even more distrubing…that New Line would resort to this tactic.
So someone makes a doc about a contreversial author. While I don’t know what light they will shine Pullman in, all I can sum up is that it (the doc) isn’t a competing work, but could be seen as a possible companion piece…or even a critique on the author should it be about that. It doesn’t really matter it isn’t “competition” with an adaptation of his work.
Perhaps New Line should buy the rights, and throw it on as a DVD extra. Either that…or leave it be.
I agree with you. I don’t see how a documentary on the author can in any way hurt the movie. New Line is being stupid and childish with this.
When Lord of the Rings came out, there was a couple straight to DVD’s about J.R.R. Tolkien , even one from National Geographic I believe. I guess they are just riding on the coat tails of the of the upcoming films. BUT they are just documentaries about the authors and their work. You would think the studio’s would appreciate them for elevating the interest for their upcoming film.
I do not for a minute think that this documentary will “hurt” the release or overall box office of the film. However, it is OBVIOUS to me that this company is trying to capitalize on the marketing and whatnot of New Line. I don’t think NL should get 10 million, but in lawsuits the “damages” amount is almost always severely inflated and if they win gets lowered substantially by the courts.
This doc company is being a bit shifty though.
Here is a brief analogy for you all who want to read and have an extra minute: When i was a kid, every spring my neighborhood would get together and have a “neighborhood-wide yard sale”. Everyone would chip in like 3 to 5 bucks and whoever was in charge would put ads in all of the area papers and make up signs to put on the large incoming roads. Inevitably, say like 20 houses would pay the money, yet on “Yard sale day” there would be like 30-35 people with crap out on their driveways. When the person in charge had some gusto, he/she would go around to the “non-payers” and ask for the advert/prep money. It is laughable how many people gave the BULLSHIT excuse like “Huh? Collecting money? I had NO IDEA that the whole neighborhood was having a group yard sale TODAY! I was just planning on doing my own, individual sale. I really don’t think I need to pay you any money.” What a crock. So, you saw the flyer noting the upcoming group sale, and just by sheer coincidence you were planning your own sale the same day? And you didn’t advertise or make any signs? Yeah, right. I mean it was like 2-5 bucks. Those people were as shifty then as this documentary company is now. Are they evil? No. Manipulative? Yes.
Not at all Serena. Much as they might like to think so, New Line did not create ‘His Dark Materials’, they just bought the film rights.