Lawsuit Over Authorship of Disney's 'Zootopia' Dealt Setback for Now
Disney has prevailed, at least for the moment, in a copyright complaint targeting its animated box-office hit "Zootopia."
July 11, 2017 at 03:20 PM
11 minute read
Disney has prevailed—at least for the moment—in a copyright complaint targeting its animated box-office hit “Zootopia.”
U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald ruled Tuesday that Gary L. Goldman's Esplanade Productions hadn't presented enough evidence to make a plausible claim for infringement against Disney with the film, which won the Academy Award for best animated feature in 2016.
The suit was filed in March and claimed that the concept and characters from “Zootopia” were derived from a pitch made by Goldman to Disney for an animated project called “Looney.” Goldman, whose credits include writing the script for “Total Recall” and producing “Minority Report,” claimed he twice ran the idea past Disney executives, in 2000 and 2009.
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