News

Few took seriously a billion-dollar lawsuit against Disney over its Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, but on Tuesday, the studio only narrowly preserved a victory against Florida author Royce Mathew at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

For more than a decade, Mathew has been in and out of court alleging that the Johnny Depp films used his work. He first sued in 2005, but then withdrew the complaint after Disney presented old "theme park art" that predated his own and represented that it had independently created "the unique supernatural elements in [Pirates of the Caribbean] that involves pirates transforming and turning into...

An author's attempt to wrangle billions over Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has come to naught after a federal judge ruled that a message to the company's "alert line" didn't properly rescind a settlement agreement. The plaintiff in this case is Royce Mathew, a Florida-based author of supernatural adventure stories, who claimed to have work stolen for the lucrative Pirates of the Caribbean films. Mathew first sued in 2005, then dismissed his complaint. He again sued in 2006, but backed down after Disney presented old "theme park art" that predated his own and represented that it had independently

read more...

Royce Mathew, a Florida-based author of supernatural adventure stories, is looking to shine the light on alleged pirating going on at The Walt Disney Company. He's filed a copyright infringement lawsuit (read the complaint here) that alleges that his work was taken for the lucrative Pirates of the Caribbean films. To succeed in his goal of extracting billions of dollars for the claimed infringements, Mathew will not only have to pass the tough legal test of demonstrating that the movies were substantially similar to his own work, but also that he has brought a timely lawsuit that isn't barred

read more...

Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-o-Rama, Assault of the Killer Bimbos, Dr. Alien, Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge, Ghost Writer, Circuitry Man, Creepozoids, Dream A Little Evil, Nightmare Sisters, etc. These are all films that 80's horror fans grew up watching either through USA's Up All Night, though Cinemax or Showtime, through their love of either Linnea Quigley or Brinke Stevens, or through looking through the seemingly endless shelves at the good old video stores of yesteryear. Royce Mathew was involved in every single one of these films functioning, as he put it himself, either through "custodial work and production assisting - to (in no order) writing, editing, costumes, props, art direction, construction, directing, producing, sound, special effects and publicity". We took a moment to pick apart Royce's brain on working on all these legendary B movies and then got a bit serious to let him discuss an ongoing legal...

The global success of the Pirates Of The Caribbean sequel has been tainted by a Hollywood screenwriter, who claims the whole idea for the franchise was his. The megahit, Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, smashed box office records in eight territories - including America and the UK - over the weekend, but writer Royce Mathew is keen to halt the celebrations. He claims he created "drawings" and a "screenplay" for a project he called Supernatural Pirate Movie - and now he fears his ideas have been turned into a Disney blockbuster. Royce states he even called the pirate ship in his film treatment the Black Pearl - the same name used for Johnny Depp's craft, and the subtitle for the original film. And he also created a lead characters called Will Turner - the same name as Orlando Bloom's swashbuckler in the Disney films - and Elizabeth - the Christian name of Keira Knightley's character. The screenwriter insists he registered the drawings and his screenplay with the US Copyright Office, and is now suing the The Walt Disney Company, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Touchstone Home Video and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, claiming movie bosses used his ideas as a blueprint for the Pirates of The Caribbean films.