rascal_father
21-06-2005, 09:07 PM
http://www.newsarama.com/movies/zoomcoverthree.jpg
Even before the film has gone into production, Fox and Marvel have filed suit to prevent Zoom starring Tim Allen from ever seeing the light of day.
Based on the comic Zoom’s Academy for the Super-Gifted by Jason Lethcote, Marvel and Fox claim that the film version of the same is confusingly similar to its X-Men franchise. While the graphic novel was not strikingly similar to the Marvel movie franchise, it is alleged that the script for the film is a near copy of the film.
Starring Tim Allen, Zoom features an out of shape superhero (Allen) who is called back into action to train a new group of teens to be the world’s next generation of superheroes. Fox and Marvel claim that Zoom copies many elements from X-Men, including an underground training facility, teenage mutant super-heroes and a dark government program looking to control the heroes.
Like Marvel/Fox’s upcoming X3, Zoom has yet to begin production, but the Revolution Studios has already announced a May 12th release for Zoom, moved up from a previously-announced August date. According to Variety, Revolution moved the film’s release a week after Fox announced it’s plans to open X3 on Memorial Day weekend, 2006 - May 26th.
From the suit: " Zoom's release in May 2006 immediately before the release of X3 (or any release in proximity to the release of X3) is an unfair attempt by Sony and Revolution to manipulate the market and trade off the time, energy, resources and effort Marvel have invested in X-Men.”
The complaint filed by Fox and Marvel states that Fox officially warned Revolution last August to be careful Zoom did not step too closely to X-Men’s core concepts. According to the complaint, Revolution never responded, to the warning, but the sides did communicate this May when Marvel and Fox sent a letter to Revolution outlining similarities between the properties based on a recent draft of Zoom’s script. Revolution reportedly made some minor changes, but the changes were not sufficient, according to Fox/Marvel, hence the suit.
The suit seeks an injunction by the court to prevent further work on the film, though, according to Variety, Marvel and Fox would most likely be satisfied with a new (read: after X3) release date, and further script changes.
The suit by Marvel is the latest in a string of litigation filmed by the media company to protect its copyrights. Ironically, it’s partner in the suit, Fox, was its one time opponent in an X-related lawsuit when the studio sued Marvel in 2001 over the Mutant X syndicated television series, which it felt was too close to the X-Men property for many of the same reasons Fox and Marvel are sueing Revloution/Sony.
Even before the film has gone into production, Fox and Marvel have filed suit to prevent Zoom starring Tim Allen from ever seeing the light of day.
Based on the comic Zoom’s Academy for the Super-Gifted by Jason Lethcote, Marvel and Fox claim that the film version of the same is confusingly similar to its X-Men franchise. While the graphic novel was not strikingly similar to the Marvel movie franchise, it is alleged that the script for the film is a near copy of the film.
Starring Tim Allen, Zoom features an out of shape superhero (Allen) who is called back into action to train a new group of teens to be the world’s next generation of superheroes. Fox and Marvel claim that Zoom copies many elements from X-Men, including an underground training facility, teenage mutant super-heroes and a dark government program looking to control the heroes.
Like Marvel/Fox’s upcoming X3, Zoom has yet to begin production, but the Revolution Studios has already announced a May 12th release for Zoom, moved up from a previously-announced August date. According to Variety, Revolution moved the film’s release a week after Fox announced it’s plans to open X3 on Memorial Day weekend, 2006 - May 26th.
From the suit: " Zoom's release in May 2006 immediately before the release of X3 (or any release in proximity to the release of X3) is an unfair attempt by Sony and Revolution to manipulate the market and trade off the time, energy, resources and effort Marvel have invested in X-Men.”
The complaint filed by Fox and Marvel states that Fox officially warned Revolution last August to be careful Zoom did not step too closely to X-Men’s core concepts. According to the complaint, Revolution never responded, to the warning, but the sides did communicate this May when Marvel and Fox sent a letter to Revolution outlining similarities between the properties based on a recent draft of Zoom’s script. Revolution reportedly made some minor changes, but the changes were not sufficient, according to Fox/Marvel, hence the suit.
The suit seeks an injunction by the court to prevent further work on the film, though, according to Variety, Marvel and Fox would most likely be satisfied with a new (read: after X3) release date, and further script changes.
The suit by Marvel is the latest in a string of litigation filmed by the media company to protect its copyrights. Ironically, it’s partner in the suit, Fox, was its one time opponent in an X-related lawsuit when the studio sued Marvel in 2001 over the Mutant X syndicated television series, which it felt was too close to the X-Men property for many of the same reasons Fox and Marvel are sueing Revloution/Sony.