Talk:Walt Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean

The following text was temporarily removed from the article because it appears that there is a lawsuit and the author of the article was one of the parties in the lawsuit. In this instance, the party should create a CZ:Topic Informant page and prepare the article accordingly. D. Matt Innis 03:39, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Walt Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean movie a work of Plagiarism?

Independent film maker Royce Mathew had sued the Walt Disney Company, Jerry Bruckheimer Inc./films, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio in Federal Court claiming they plagiarized his supernatural pirate movie for the Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

Detailed in lawsuits filed in Federal court “PUBLIC RECORD” (2005 & 2006), and in various national and international news, press releases, including photos and evidence on the website disneylawsuit.com, detail that in the early 1990's Royce Mathew had pitched his original supernatural pirate story to the Walt Disney Company which is about “cursed pirates” of the Black Pearl pirate ship; pirates who don't want anything to do with the plunder/return a treasure because they are cursed, with effects of the curse they endure is fully revealed by moonlight and the gold medallion on a gold chain with mystic properties able to summon/call. Royce Mathew had made a short derivative video work in 1994.

Then years later, as the lawsuits together charge, via Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, the Walt Disney Company, had incorporated various homages from their Pirates of the Caribbean theme park ride attraction into Royce Mathew’s supernatural pirate story, characters and sequences, had also incorporated the “walking underwater under the overturned rowboat sequence” from Warner Bros. “The Crimson Pirate” movie, and also utilized the daring opening “pirate hanging sequence” from rival studio Universal’s “Swashbuckler” movie as their new daring pirate hanging ending, and are selling it as Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl movie franchise. In response, the Walt Disney Company states that Royce Mathew’s lawsuits have no merit while Jerry Bruckheimer’s company directed all media inquires to the Walt Disney Company. Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio have posted comments and can be contacted via their website wordplayer.com.

During legal proceedings, the Walt Disney Company, Jerry Bruckheimer (films/Inc.), Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio “The Defendants” were all represented by the same team of attorneys headed by Sanford “Sandy” Litvack, who is a close associate of the Walt Disney Company (Michael Eisner), who also was the Walt Disney Company’s attorney in the noted lawsuit of Jeffrey Katzenberg vs the Walt Disney Company.

Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio credits included projects for the Walt Disney Company and DreamWorks. Royce Mathew’s credits included projects for Paramount Pictures, Allan Carr, David DeCoteau and Charles Band and his Full Moon Entertainment company. Further reading and/or photos about Pirates of the Caribbean can be found on the following websites and publications.

SOURCES:

Wordplayer.com - Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio’s website

Disneylawsuit.com - Royce Mathew’s website

Jbfilms.com - Jerry Bruckheimer’s website

Royce Mathew vs. The Walt Disney Company on MSNBC news:

Internet Movie Data base - Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Royce Mathew and Jerry Bruckheimer all on IMDB website

“Disney War” by James B. Stewart -

E-Ticket Magazine - Janzen

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl DVD disk 2 - History of the Attraction

Walt Disney Family Foundation

Davelandweb -