The Curious Court Case of 'Benjamin Button'

Monday

02Feb2009

The Curious Court Case of 'Benjamin Button'

Monday, February 2, 2009 at 9:38PM

It seems that every year, a movie is dragged into court fighting claims that it was stolen from some writer nobody's ever heard of. This year, that movie is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

You're smart enough to know that the film is based on a short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald almost 90 years ago, but Adriana Pichini, an office worker in Rome, is claiming that Eric Roth stole the idea from her story, Il ritorno di Arthur all'innocenza, or Arthur's Return to Innocence.

Does she have a case? Well, Pichini's story does have an Italian copyright date of 1994, according to The Hollywood Reporter, although it's unlike Eric Roth has ever seen it...since Il Ritorno has never been published.

What happens next? A judge will read the story and watch the film to determine if there are indeed enough similarities to pursue the case. What authority the Italian courts would have is unclear, and it is also not known if Pichini wants money, although her attorney claims, "At this point it's still a matter of principle."

The likelihood is very slim that there is a substantial case that can be made, and it's also as unlikely as it is likely that Pichini herself has seen the film, since it doesn't open in Italy for another 10 days. I'm guessing the fallout will be that someone finally publishes her book and she goes away quietly.

Colin Boyd |

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