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The author of a 1995 comic story with the same title as the movie Cowboys & Aliens has sued producers of the movie and a comics publisher, alleging they stole his idea. Austin-based author Steven John Busti filed the suit in federal court in Texas. The suit named DreamWorks Studios, Universal Pictures and comic book entrepreneur Scott Mitchell Rosenberg and his company Platinum Studios as defendants. Busti claims he came up with the idea for cowboys fighting aliens in 1994 and published a story the following year titled “Cowboys & Aliens” in a comic called Bizarre Fantasy. The suit also claims that in 1994 the publication Comic Shop News ran a feature on his Cowboys & Aliens idea in the same issue that ran a story on Rosenberg. Rosenberg’s LA-based Platinum Studios in 2006 launched the graphic novel series Cowboys & Aliens — which Busti asserted in the suit has striking similarities to his work. Universal and DreamWorks bought movie rights from Platinum. Busti’s claim is another black mark against the movie on which the studios placed high hopes and a big budget. A major disappointment financially, Cowboys & Aliens grossed about $175 million worldwide, barely more than it cost.
‘Cowboys & Aliens’ Sparks Texas Lawsuit
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I wrote one of the first, if not THE first — story on the Cowboys vs Aliens script waaaaay back when either at The Hollywood Reporter or Variety which was in the mid-1990s.
This is a very old script that probably went through as many incarnations as “The Brave.” Nonetheless …
“The suit also claims that in 1994 the publication Comic Shop News ran a feature on his Cowboys & Aliens idea in the same issue that ran a story on Rosenberg.”
Whoops.
Looks like there’s a case to be made here, his story is pretty much the same as the movie, and the titles are the same.
Well, did Busti sue Rosenberg when the 2006 comic came out? No? Not enough money in an independently published comic book to sue? But when Hollywood steps in and a movie grosses millions of dollars, that’s another story.
In any event, the “idea” of mixing cowboys and aliens goes back to Gene Autry in “The Phantom Empire” in the 1930s. And you can’t really copyright an idea. Sounds like a nuisance suit!
It is true that you can’t copyright an idea (or a title). You have to PROVE that someone stole your work – proving both access and substantial similarity. The thing is, writers come up with similar ideas all the time, and then once they set down a certain creative path, they tend to come up with similar set pieces. I haven’t read the short story or seen the movie, so I am a blank slate, but if I sat down today to write a movie called “Cowboys and Aliens”, I guarantee you I would come up with a lot of similar material.
A great example is the “Mall Cop” controversy. Two separate writers came up with that basic idea. Same title. But then, with no one stealing anything, they started cranking out the same material – mall cop couldn’t make it as a real cop, so he got this job, lives with his mother, has to defend the mall against robbers using his knowledge of the layout… similar scenes in Victoria’s Secret, Rainforest Cafe, etc.
But, if you had’t seen either script, and you set out to write a movie called “Mall Cop,” you would probably come up with some of this stuff on your own. It just follows, logically and creatively, from the title/premise.
The lesson: copyright the hell out of everything, in as much detail and as early as possible. WGA registration is fine too, but does not have the same legal teeth as federal copyright law.
I knew there was something from the 30s or 40s about cowboys vs aliens but could not remember what it was. I have heard of that Phantom Menace but never saw it. I don’t think I want to see it since it would probably be worse than Cowboys and Aliens.
Whatever. I say Charles Band should throw a lawsuit at both of them for “striking similarities” to his 1994 sci-fi Western OBLIVION, just for the hell of it.
A totally superior movie, too!
He’s certainly got points for being able to reference published work. However unless he can show a transparently straight ripoff of his story, the key will be to find a jury that is so lacking in imagination -or life – as to believe his idea itself was original/unique in the first place.
Maybe a place to start is Jules Verne’s work…
Platinum = shady, shady, shady
This is why people HATE lawyers. If you look at the story, it’s so flimsy. This guy trying to sue NEVER states he met with the Cowboys And Aliens creators or pitched a project to them.
His beef is that his book had a Alien and a Cowboy in it. And oh wow, so does this movie!
BUT let’s say in theory that was the inspiration. So what? It’s what you do with the ideas that matters.
NEWSFLASH every idea is not new. You can always go back and find something that inspired it.
Look at zombies? George Romero could in theory then sue just about every zombie maker and film ever made. Cause they all follow his same base idea and story.
Go back to Superman and Nietzsche coined the term. So in theory could he sue? So could that family in theory sue DC?
How about Batman using elements of the Shadow. Another lawsuit?
If you go back to just about any property, you will find some trivial matter that took place before and could be said to inspire a current book or movie.
This is a POS lawsuit by a desperate creator who wants to juice out some money from a successful property.
I guess Marvel and the Jack Kirby family shouldn’t sue him? After all his Bizarre Fantasy comic looks like a Jack Kirby Marvel Monsters cover. Plus the pose of the monster looks like the cover of Fantastic Four #1 when it’s holding Invisible Woman up.
See two can play that game.
Honest to God, Cowboys and Aliens is so awful, I don’t know why anyone would want to claim credit for it. What a misfire.
Who cares, the movie flopped just as I knew it would. Now on to Cowboys vs. Sharktopus.
As others mention, you can’t copyright an idea. So his only hope is to prove plagiarism. Put his short story next to the script for the movie and compare.
Westerns and sci-fi are always a bad idea.
AmIright?
In movies, maybe…
Look back to the original TV-series, “The Wild Wild West” though. No aliens but plenty of western and a fair smattering of sci-fi. Very well done. Some of the same people who started the work on this went on to work on the original “Star Trek” tv series.
I was signed up to write a comic for Platinum about six years ago or so. The pay was awful, but I had a story I wanted to write. They said they were willing to buy it, and we seemed to be moving forward. Within a week, they pulled a bait and switch and threatened to cancel the deal unless I wrote something they wanted done from their own files first.
Meanwhile, my managers at the time had coincidently met with the Platinum crew a few days prior on other projects and urged me out of the way with: “You need to not be in business with these people.”
Just my experience, but I have no doubt Rosenberg and his company would have no pangs of conscience about stealing an idea. It’s that kind of a shady company. They got their money now, so they can take their place behind the long list of comics publishers who got rich by hijacking the work of more talented people.
Stan Lee? Jack Kirby says, “Hi!”
All he has to do is make a jury believe a Hollywood producer is vain or paranoid enough to read everything written about him.
Wasn’t there a story about how Speilberg ripped off Satyajit Ray’s original story about a boy and an extra terrestrial .. ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Alien
In the early 1980′s, Heavy Metal magazine published John Findley’s Texarcana serialized comic about aliens and magic in the old west. In 1999 the author published it online at http://www.texarcana.com/
And there’s a script out there that’s even more similar and that predates even Steven John Busti’s comic by 5 years. It’s on Facebook under “Cowboys and Aliens” screenplay. Or just go directly here:
http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/2645319/cowboys-and-aliens-pdf-march-6-2011-9-06-am-338k
I have this idea…. Cowboys and DINOSAURS……
The lawsuit is very strong you can read it online at
http://www.scribd.com/doc/74426690/Cowboys-Aliens-Lawsuit
Rosenberg stole the concept that’s obvious. He should be sued by Dreamworks and Universal they should turn on him and he should be forced to pay this artist at least $500,000 for theft of intellectual property.
Mike… I like it. Have your people call mine.
Copyright law does not protect ideas, it protects “expressions” of an idea. Two xamples: twelve art students are told to draw the classroom window and the scene outside the window. As a result, there are twelve different expressions of the same idea. Twelve writing students are given the first sentence in a 300 word assignment, “the boy laid bleading in the rain.” The result: twelve different expressions of the initial idea.
For infringment, author must show substatial similarity and access to original work.