Two courts considered this sci-fi action plagiarism: The creator had to pay a large fine – Cinema News

It happens over and over again that films are heavily inspired by other features. These cases rarely end up in court. But for this production, John Carpenter sued his colleague Luc Besson – and won.

In Space Hijacking, a criminal played by Guy Pearce (Amnesia) gets another chance in the distant future. When the US President’s daughter (Maggie Grace) ends up in the hands of inmates in a futuristic space prison, he must free her.

The following thought may come to mind when reading this brief synopsis: This sounds suspiciously like the story of the classic film, Escape from New York. It establishes that there are similarities and it is believed that John Carpenter’s work has much more to offer.

What’s special about this case: While such similarities occur far too often in Hollywood and are ultimately only panned by critics and audiences alike, Carpenter went on the offensive here – and in the resulting process, the producer behind Kidnapping in Space, Luc Besson, bet heavily.

The film is currently available for purchase and rent on Prime Video and Apple TV.

“It was not written by John Carpenter”: Why Kurt Russell refused to star in this saga

“Blocking” process: things got very expensive in the second trial

John Carpenter worked in France, where Luc Besson’s company EuroCorp is based, and took legal action. Although Hijacking in Space was directed by Stephen St. Leger and James Mather, its main target was Besson. He not only produced the film with his company, but according to the feature credits he also invented the story.

In 2015, a French court ruled that it was merely plagiarism of Carpenter’s film. Besson had to pay 80,000 euros. The money was supposed to go to Carpenter, his screenwriter Nick Castle and his film distributor StudioCanal. But Besson did not want to tolerate this. He went to the next instance, where his legal team argued, among other things, that Besson, known as “one of France’s greatest talents of all time” for classics like The Professional, there was no need to copy a story.

However, the second process was not a good idea. The new court not only concluded that “core elements were massively copied”, but also considered that the damages had been assessed too low in the first instance. The compensation claim was increased by more than five times. In the end, Besson had to pay 465 thousand euros – at least, not the more than two million euros that Carpenter demanded.

In fact, Space Hijack is not the first film in which Besson has been faced with accusations of plagiarism – his sci-fi classic The Fifth Element was also sued for more than $22 million.

*Translation from a partner site of QuandoCinema

Stay up to date with news about films and series and receive exclusive opportunities. Listen to OdeioCinema on Spotify or on your favorite audio platform, Join our WhatsApp Channel and be a Card Adorer!