Lawsuit Happens to 'Love Happens'

I've seen a few of the commercials for Love Happens and each time I ask myself why this same goddamn movie keeps getting made. The answer, of course, is Aniston. There's still a big belief in her ability to draw audiences to movie theaters, even though it's never a guarantee in her case. So here it is, some smarmy romantic dramedy drivel co-starring poor Aaron Eckhart, whose work in this genre is depressing in its necessity. And it opens this weekend and I'm sure women will fall in love with Rachel from Friends all over again. But here's the thing: Two writers claim Universal stole the movie. TMZ reports that Greg Crowder and Tony Freitas have filed a lawsuit against NBC Universal based on meetings they had with former VP of Production at Da U Scott Bernstein. The suit claims that the writers had multiple meetings about the script but that Bernstein insisted on major rewrites. Universal wouldn't pay for the rewrites and the deal to buy the script fell apart. Earlier this year, Crowder submitted that same script to another studio, which told him it was too similar to the screenplay for Love Happens. In fact, the wording is that the company as "concerned that [Crowder] might have stolen" the idea. Crowder and Freitas say that's backwards, and that the movie opening this Friday is actually their script. So now, the writers are trying to block the release of the film, which seems very unlikely since it's supposed to open in almost 2,000 locations and the prints are either being delivered today or already have been. The other option is paying Crowder and Freitas. Their ballpark figure is a laughable $100 million. Even if Universal did steal the script - and you hear talk of that kind of activity more often than you'd like - the writers would never be due that kind of money, even if the movie made $250 million. We'll follow the activity on this and see how much they wind up getting, if anything.

Comments

[Eric]

I wonder where the writers stole their script idea from.

[mdamien13]

Everytime one of these movies comes out I'm reminded of that episode of the Simpsons where Homer becomes smart after removing the crayon from his brain and goes to see a romantic comedy. "That's Bill Pullman you fools!"