ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Reuters) – A small Detroit publishing firm won a $19 million lawsuit against 20th Century Fox on Tuesday after a jury agreed the movie studio swindled the script for a hit Christmas movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Murray Hill Publications claimed in the lawsuit the script for the 1996 movie “Jingle All the Way” bore a remarkable resemblance to the screenplay “Could This be Christmas?” written by high school teacher Brian Alan Webster.
The screenwriter for “Jingle All the Way,” listed as Ed McQueen, was actually an alias for Randy Kornfield, a script reader at 20th Century Fox, Mayer Morganroth, a lawyer for the publishing firm, told Reuters.
The similarities in the plot in both the movie and Webster's screenplay were extensive, Morganroth said.
In both, a boy draws a picture of an action figure he wants for Christmas and puts it on the refrigerator, where his father sees it, Morganroth said. The father visits a toy store to find the action figure, only to realize the hottest-selling gift of the season has long sold out.
“They both were about an African-American parent and a Caucasian trying to find a toy for a son. And the toy in our script was Action Man, and in their script was Turbo Man,” Morganroth said. In the movie, Schwarzenegger played the white parent and the actor Sinbad played the black parent.
Murray Hill, which bought the rights to Webster's screenplay, pitched it to several movie studios, including News Corp unit of 20th Century Fox, in 1993 without finding any interest.
Soon after, 20th Century Fox purchased the rights to “Jingle All the Way,” which grossed $80 million at the box office and through video sales.
Lawyers and officials for 20th Century Fox did not return telephone calls from Reuters seeking comment.
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Worker Killed on L.A. Set of New 'Spider-Man' Movie
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A construction worker building an office building set for Sony Pictures' upcoming movie, “Spider-Man,” was killed on Tuesday in a collision of two cranes, fire officials said.
The accident occurred about 9 a.m. PST (noon EST) in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey, where crew members were using several cranes to prepare the movie set.
A larger crane tipped over and slammed into a smaller crane upon which the victim was working, Downey fire officials said.
The victim was not immediately identified. Investigators were traveling to the lot to determine the cause of the accident.
