SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday sided with a screenwriter who claims he came up with the idea behind “The Purge” franchise, a dystopian society where citizens can commit any crime they desire during a designated consequence-free time period.

A Ninth Circuit panel upheld a lower court that denied an anti-SLAPP motion brought by the producers of the films and director/writer James DeMonaco. Although California's anti-SLAPP statute is meant to bring an early end to lawsuits that direct claims at free speech activity such as filmmaking, the appellate court found the writer-plaintiff's state law claim hinged on the fact that he wasn't paid for his work.

“Because the 'overall thrust of the complaint' challenges defendants' failure to pay for the use of his idea, we hold that the failure to pay is the conduct from which the claim arises,” wrote Ninth Circuit Judge Harry Pregerson.