Quentin Tarantino sued
Oscar Colvin Jr. and his son Torrance J. Colvin have filed a copyright lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C. that claims Tarantino stole the plot and other ideas from their screenplay ‘Freedom.’ He used the plot and other ideas, their lawsuit claims, for Django Unchained, released in 2012.
Along with Tarantino, who won a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for the screenplay of Django Unchained (he also directed the film),’ the lawsuit also names The Weinstein Company and Columbia Pictures.
The suit alleges that in putting together his screenplay “Tarantino took the plot lines and main story of ‘Freedom’ and Tarantino-ized them” and that the screenplay of ‘Freedom’ by the Colvins “provided the heart, bones and muscles to develop the unique idea that eventually would be transformed into Django Unchained.”
Colvin Jr. and his son claim they’d shown their screenplay to a talent agency and spoke with that agency about it being a vehicle for Tarantino to direct. None of the allegations have been proven in a court of law and the father and son will have to prove that Tarantino had access to the script for ‘Freedom’ prior to having written Django Unchained.
Trail date unknown
They are suing for compensation “in excess of hundreds of millions of dollars to be proven at trial.” Their suit notes their script for ‘Freedom’ was registered with the Screen Writers Guild of America in 2004.
“Before Django Freeman,” the Colvin’s lawsuit reads “There was an escaped slave named Jackson Freeman who desired to purchase his family’s freedom from a malevolent plantation owner. Before Dr. Schultz, there was Samson, another white man, who would assist Mr. Freeman in his efforts to rescue his loved one(s) from slavery.”
Neither Tarantino nor a representative has made a public comment on the lawsuit and if the suit goes to trail there is no date set for it to begin. Tarantino has said Django Unchained was in part a tribute to Italian director Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 spaghetti western Django. The plot of the two films are different but each features racists whites and plenty of violence. Tarantino used the same title song.
Django Unchained grossed some $425 million worldwide and starred Jamie Fox as Django Freeman, a man trying to free his enslaved wife. It also features Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio.
