Screenwriter sues for stolen "Pirates" ideas

7/15/2006
Kevin Manahan
Writer claims Disney took ideas he had developed for his own previous project.

Screenwriter Royce Mathew filed a copyright infringement suit July 7 against Walt Disney Co. and others, saying they had taken the material for "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl" from a project he had worked on earlier.

In the suit, Mathew claimed he had developed ideas for a "Supernatural Pirate Movie" in the 1980s, for which he "created and wrote a number of original works including drawings, screenplays, outlines, blueprints, storyboards and other original materials."

Mathew also said ideas he had filed with the U.S. Copyright Office included a pirate ship named Black Pearl.

He is seeking unspecified damages as well as a permanent sanction against the movie and "other infringing works."

Disney denounced the claims, with Disney and Buena Vista representative Heidi Trotta saying, "The suit has no merit."

Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Jerry Bruckheimer Inc. are among the other defendants in the suit.

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