Dreamworks and Disney sued over The Light Between Oceans

The Light Between Oceans disappointed on the review and box-office from its release last year with and now its been hit with a possible legal battle….

The Wrap is reporting that author Joseph Nobile claims Oceans is a plagiarised version of his original screenplay “The Rootcutter” (later renamed “A Tale of Two Humans”) and is now suing original author Margo Louise Watts (author M.L. Stedman’s pseudonym), publishers Simon & Schuster, and film companies Disney and DreamWorks, as well as its successor companies.

Nobile says he wrote “The Rootcutter” in 2004 and claims that Watts “knowingly and willfully copied, plagiarized, pirated and misappropriated expressive content” from his screenplay in “The Light Between Oceans,”” which was first published in 2012.

By extension, DreamWorks and Disney are part of the lawsuit after producing and distributing the film of the same title, which was released in last year. Nobile adds that “the parties infringed his copyright, and is asking to be compensated for damages he sustained while working on the film, as well as given all profits from the book and film that are “attributable to the infringement of his copyrighted screenplay.””

A passage from the complaint reads:

“Nobile has expended development money and considerable time and effort attempting to obtain financing for the production of a motion picture based on his Screenplay, including after the publication of the Novel, of which he was unaware… The widespread dissemination of the Novel and Film, containing striking similarities to the unique expressive content of Nobile’s Screenplay, will in all likelihood prevent Nobile from being able to raise financing or interest any production company in filming his Screenplay.”

Directed by Derek Cianfrance (who also wrote the screenplay), the film starred Michael Fassbender, Alica Vikander and Rachel Weisz and grossed $24million worldwide.