Steven Spielberg, DreamWorks, and Paramount now have a lawsuit to deal with, claiming their movie Disturbia stole its story from the 1942 short story by Cornell Woolrich which was turned into the 1954 Hitchcock classic Rear Window.

At the moment, there’s no word from the Spielberg/DreamWorks party on the case and how things may play out.

This is an interesting situation because, first of all, I’m pretty sure everyone has always looked at Disturbia as a remake of Rear Window. I know I personally always just assumed it was obvious and completely valid.

Also worth note is that Disturbia came out almost a year and a half ago — so why so long before anyone did or said anything? It doesn’t look (from the outside) like anything too complicated to act on; you think someone stole your idea, you sue away, not wait a couple of years and then jump on it. There could absolutely be some unseen elements to why they waited so long, but again, to outside eyes it looks a little odd.

To me, this has “settled out of court” or “case dropped” oozing out of it, but only time will tell on what will actually happen.

[Source: LA Times]