Maine author sues Warner Brothers over movie
A Maine author is suing Warner Brothers over the Oscar-award winning movie “Gravity.”
The Maine Public Broadcasting Network reported that Tess Gerritsen of Camden has filed a lawsuit with U.S. District Court in California, alleging that Warner Brothers used her 1999 novel, “Gravity,” as the premise for its 2013 movie of the same name.
She is seeking at least $10 million of the film's $700 million in box office gross earnings, based on a $1 million contract she signed with a subsidiary of New Line Productions in 1999 to sell the book’s feature film rights. That company has been owned by Warner Brothers since 2008.
Gerritsen's book is about a female physician-turned astronaut and her efforts to survive a series of disasters while aboard a space station, which Gerritsen said shares striking similarities to the movie.
According to a statement on her website, she believed it was a coincidence until this February when a source told her that the movie’s director, Alfonso Cuaron, was connected to the film while it was in development and that he would have known about the book.
"No one is saying they couldn't make the film based on her book," Glen Kulik, Gerritsen’s lawyer, told the radio station. "But under her contract, if they did make that film based on her book, they were supposed to do certain things."
Kulik said the lawsuit was filed after unsuccessful attempts to resolve the issue out-of-court.
A Warner Brothers spokesman declined to comment, but noted that Gerritsen had said, “‘Gravity’ is a great film, but it’s not based on my book,” in an Oct. 8, 2013 story.
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