Joss Whedon and Lionsgate have been hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit from a novelist who claims that his book is nearly identical to the 2012 horror film The Cabin in the Woods.
Writer Peter Gallagher (who is not the same person as the actor) says he wrote a book called The Little White Trip: A Night in the Pines in 2006 and the book was registered with the Writers Guild of America in 2007, reports TheWrap. Gallagher published 7,500 copies of the book and sold them throughout the Los Angeles area.
Gallagher filed a copyright infringement lawsuit on Monday in U.S. district court in California, claiming that Cabin and The Little White Trip have “virtually identical” traits.
“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 reads.
Gallagher says that both the book and the film deal with a group of young adults in a remote cabin and it is revealed that they are manipulated by someone they cannot see. He says that the two main female characters share similar names as well. In his book, they are Julie and Dura, while the film’s characters are Jules and Dana.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a Lionsgate spokesman would not comment. Reps for Whedon and Cabin co-writer Drew Goddard have not responded for comment yet.
Whedon’s next film, Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, hits theaters on May 1. He co-wrote Cabin with Goddard and produced the film. Goddard also worked with Whedon on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and produced Netflix’s Daredevil.