“Lock Out” vs “New York 1997″: Luc Besson sentenced on appeal for plagiarism – Télérama.fr

The director of the “Fifth Element” has lost on appeal a lawsuit by John Carpenter, who accused him of plagiarism. According to him, “Lock Out” was a disguised remake of his film “New York 1997″

To my left .: Lock Out . Franco-American film directed in 2012 by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger
In the scenario. and the filmmakers Luc Besson
The synopsis:. MS one is an experimental space prison where the 500 most dangerous criminals in the world are kept in an artificial sleep. Responsible for a humanitarian mission, the daughter of the US president, Emilie Warnock, arrives aboard the station. A mutiny of rare violence broke out there. Emilie and MS One of the team are taken hostage by the inmates. The president decides to send it with the Snow agent for sole mission to save his daughter, and no one else …

To my right : New York 1997 . British-American film directed in 1981 by John Carpenter.
In scenario : John Carpenter with Nick Castle
Synopsis . In 1997 Manhattan has become a huge prison island or three million prisoners are organized into rival gangs. Following an attack, the aircraft of the US President crashes into the penitentiary. The safety officer Bob Hauk decided to send a prisoner to recover. This inmate is called Snake Plissken. Dropped in the island prison, he must clear a path avoiding the hooligans and the cannibals that populate Manhattan. Snake has a few hours to recover Chairman avoid catastrophic diplomatic incident and especially defusing bomblets that has implanted in his body without his knowledge.

You said similar ? This is certainly the view of John Carpenter who attacked Luc Besson in court and won his case in 2015: the High Court of Paris had sentenced the director of Fifth Element to “counterfeiting characterized” . Luc Besson had then been ordered to pay 80,000 euros in damages to complainants (50 of 000 StudioCanal, holder of the exploitation rights and 20 000 Nick Castle, co-writer of the film). Luc Besson, denouncing “obstructing the freedom of art” , had appealed.

June 10, 2016, he was dismissed and his sentence heavier, as just reveal BFM Business: Luc Besson must now pay 465,000 euros to the plaintiffs. The judges ruled that “massive takeover by Lock Out essential elements of 1997 New York similarly arranged constitutes infringement” , and revealed the long list of similarities between the two films, look up the main characters, with similar names and attitude: it is called Snake in the movie Carpenter, Snow in the film scripted by Besson; each door leather jacket and shirt, was wounded in the thigh in both films … Contacted by BFM Business, EuropaCorp, Luc Besson’s studio, commented on the court ruling as follows: “The low the conviction shows that the courts have finally decided that mere similarity in relation to the amount of money requested by the complainants. However, as we have always said, we disagree with the interpretation by the courts, because we believe that the two works have nothing similar in their overall impression. “ Nevertheless the conviction is final, EuropaCorp has decided not to appeal.