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Paramount Sues Filmmaker Over 12 Minute Internet Version of Soon To Be Released "World Trade Center" Film
Paramount Pictures is suing a 28-year-old filmmaker, Chris Moukarbel, for making a 12-minute version of the studio's soon-to-be-released "World Trade Center" film and offering it for free on the Internet. The Internet version features Yale student actors performing parts of the original screenplay which the filmmaker obtained from a boot-leg version of the original film, which was directed by Oliver Stone.
Until recently, the film was described on the filmmaker's website as a "12-minute movie, adapted from a boot-leg script for Oliver Stone's soon to be released film World Trade Center." Paramount has, nevertheless, alleged that people will see the student film on the Internet and confuse it with the $60 Million Hollywood blockbuster. The studio's claim also alleges that "large numbers of people will see the [student version] first for free and determine, based on this poor-quality copy, that they do not want to see the remainder of the WTC Film at a theatre when it is released."
According to the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in the Netherlands, the film is an original work of art which, like other examples of Moukarbel's work, uses found media to explore the way in which political events are edified.
The film has since been removed from the filmmaker's website which now states "VIDEO REMOVED AT REQUEST OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES". Paramount's lawyers have also contacted other websites that linked to the film.
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