Hollywood star Tom Cruise has been hit with USD 1 billion lawsuit for alleged copyright infringement. Timothy Patrick McLanahan, who filed the suit in December, claims his script idea was stolen for 2011’s film Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol.
He named Cruise, Brad Grey, Paramount Pictures and 10 others as defendants, reported Ace Showbiz.
In the document, screenwriter McLanahan claims he wrote a script titled ‘Head On’ in 1998 and pitched it to the William Morris Agency, but he was told “that they could not use the script as a movie.”
He alleged that his script was passed to Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which represents Cruise, and that was how they stole his idea.
“I immediately recognised that the scripts for this movie had been illegally written and produced from Head On’s 1998 copyright,” he claimed.
“Because the Ghost Protocol film generated close to USD 1 billion, I am asking for this amount in damages,” he added.
McLanahan, however, does not provide any examples of similarities in his lawsuit. Cruise’s lawyer Bert Fields has denied the accusation.
“Tom Cruise has never stolen anything from anyone. This bizarre lawsuit against 13 people… will be quickly dismissed by the court,” he said. (PTI)
