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Sylvester Stallone has been sued by a writer who alleges the hit movie The Expendables copies a script and short story he filed with the U.S. Copyright Office in 2006. Marcus Webb says he then made available to Hollywood studios a script about mercenaries recruited to defeat a dictator named General Garza. Webb alleges in the suit filed in federal court in Manhattan that the screenplay for The Expendables is “strikingly similar and in some places identical” to his The Cordoba Caper. Webb seeks unspecified damages and a court order stopping further infringement by Stallone, his credited co-author David Callaham, Millennium/NuImage Films and Lionsgate. Expendables 2 is slated to open August 17, 2012.
Stallone Sued Over ‘Expendables’ Script
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Jesus, how many people did Stallone steal that script from?
Don’t know how much longer Stallone can stay alive…he’s pumped himself up with steroids and HGH for years, and lately he’s reassembled his face so much thet he looks like his mother.
Yuck.
In related news, Dave Callaham nearly died tonight choking on his own laughter.
Callaham is guilty as hell here and Stallone is ready to rip Dave’s head off. Callaham not only read Cordoba Caper he did coverage on it when he was starting out as an intern or an assistant. That coverage is on its way to New York as evidence with Dave’s name on it as the reader. This is no coincidence.
This is the same thing Mike France did 20 years ago when he was working as a reader at TriStar he read a script about a plane crash in the mountains with stolen money and a mountain climber who’s forced to help the bad guys find the money in the snow. France gave the script a bad review then he rewrote it and improved it and sold it under the new title Cliffhanger.
There was a big lawsuit over that and the original writer ended up with the weird credit that the Guild created just for this case it was a “based on a premise by” credit never used before or since. It’s also what Randy Kornfeld did when he worked as a reader at Fox he read a script by a writer from Minnesota and passed on it then he stole it, rewrote it and sold it as Jingle All The Way. That was another big lawsuit and the writer won a huge amount.
Here’s how this suit will play out to avoid trial. Stallone will sign a declaration stating he had no idea that Callaham lifted these scenes from Cordoba Caper and that’s the truth. Callaham will be forced to give this writer every dollar he made from Expendables. The suit will be dropped and Marcus Webb will never get any credit at all but he will get Dave’s residuals in perpetuity. Good going Dave, way to go. Too bad you got caught.
Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, Sly.
“in the know,” you are anything but. In the “writer’s” own lawsuit, Webb states he registered his script “with the U.S. Copyright Office in 2006.” Yet Callaham wrote the script on which EXPENDABLES was based in 2005 (it was called BARROW and got a vote on the Black List that year).
As for Stallone getting ready to “rip Dave’s head off.” That could be the funniest thing ever posted on this site. So thanks for the laugh even if your “facts” are pure fiction.
Don’t think this is true…read Callaham’s script when it was called something else in 2005, a full year before this dude is claiming he submitted it.
Love you, DEADLINE, but please do your research on posters — that one is a fake/fan-made. not official.
(Although I guess it’s kind of appropriate, considering the subject matter of the news…)
I’m generally inclined to scoff at such lawsuits as ideas reside in the zeitgeist and the execution is what has value, but “in some places identical”?
If you’re Stallone and you want to use an unknown’s script, why not just purchase it? It’s not like the price of an unknown’s work is terribly steep.
You steal it because you’re an egotistical Hollywood asshole. People in the business are a pack of phonies a liars who want everyone to believe they are truly talented.
Did somebody get sick reading it? I’d sue too.
Similiar is not a problem. Even strikingly similar is not a problem Identical is a problem. If there is anything in the way of a paper link between the writer and the Expendables people it is a huge problem.
Is he also suing Bruce Willis for Red? If Hollywood got sued every time a non-original idea was made, no movies would ever be made. Ever.
Red is based in a graphic novel and they did buy the rights for that Einstein.
THE CORDOBA CAPER is like one of those bad movie titles that would pop up on SEINFELD. Jerry and Elaine would go see that right after they got out of PROGNOSIS NEGATIVE.
C’mon, everyone knows that Stallone only stole that script once from Callaham. Can’t a guy use HGH, buy fake art, and sleep on a giant pile of cash in peace?!
Dear Marcus Webb, aim higher buddy!
Nevermind the script, I know many movies “strikingly similar and in some places identical” to The Expendables.
The worst was the time Spielberg got sued for copying Twister and it turned out to be true.
Expendables is a clear continuation of Stallone’s writing in the First Blood sequels. After Dog Day Afternoon, A-Team and pretty much every Chuck Norris movie ever made it’s ridiculous to claim that an idea as broad and trite as “mercenaries fight a dictator” is original.
Dog Day Afternoon? Check yo’ facts, chump.
Do you mean “Dogs of War” starring Christopher Walken? “Dog Day Afternoon” is about a Brooklyn bank robbery gone wrong, not about mercenaries.
How do you lump Dog Day Afternoon in with First Blood and Chuck Norris?
I’m a writer and I can tell you that it does not matter in a court of law if the script is good or bad, if the out come of production produces an A movie or B movie, All that they will be looking for is the writers signature style. This goes way beyond similarities and originality. It has to do with sentence structure and phraseology and just a whole host of things that a writers past writings will establish. Now if a stolen script is not completely rewritten erasing all elements of style It cam easily be proven who wrote the material, and as most theft of written works are done TO AVOID WRITING! there are usually huge chunks of signature style left in the work. Only the court appointed writing analyst will give us the verdict, if it ever reaches court. My bets on Mr. Webb
As usual, movie gets noticed at Box Office — bunch of rejects sue saying based on their idea. I’d be interested to know if any of these lawsuits ever win?
Seriously… if this is news enough to make Deadline, wouldn’t we be seeing stories like this every other week?
Callaham wrote BARROW (later purchased by Stallone/Millenium and turned into the EXPENDABLES) for Warner Bros in 2005 off a contract dated and signed in 2004. So it would have been pretty hard for him to have incorporated any elements from material written in 2006.
The writer should lose his case for using the word ‘caper’ in his title
Agreed. And Stallone should lose for stealing an script with caper in its title.
Absolutely!
Nonsense, capers are tasty.
I sure hope Marcus Webb’s attorney can invent a time machine. That way his client can go back and “file his script with the U.S. Copyright Office” in 2004 rather than 2006. It would be helpful since THE EXPENDABLES was based on Callaham’s original script, BARROW, which Callaham wrote for Warner Brothers…in 2005. But don’t take my word for it, do a Google search for “Black List 2005.” Yep, it’s on there.
Maybe Callaham should sue Webb for taking his idea and “making it available to Hollywood studios.”
Nice try “Just the facts, ma’am. Do a little more research. BARROW was submitted to Warner Brothers in 2004, not 2005. BARROW was picked up by Stallone in 2008. The actual script for BARROW was not used by Stallone. Just the concept. David Callaham has said as such in interviews. Stallone’s first script for “The Expendables” didn’t pop until December of 2008. That gives him two years to rip off Marcus Webb.
Bad news for plaintiff- Expendables was already in studio hands in 2005.
This just in…
The writer of “The Dirty Dozen” called in from his nursing home to get in on the action.
The writer of the last RAMBO had a chillingly familiar situation happen to him. Stallone is the WORST IN HOLLYWOOD when it comes to stealing other peoples ideas. He’s friggin’ notorious. Why do you think Avi is his only game in town. That’s all that’s left of who wants to be in business with him. Stallone is a sleaze bag.
There was a script???
To be fair, The Expendables probably would have made the same at the box office with NO script.
Can Sly sue himself for rocky 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and ad nauseum?