The family of a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright are challenging the producers and director of a popular Hollywood film on grounds of copyright infringement, it has emerged in recent days.
According to reports, the relatives of 1960s playwright Paul Zindel have raised concerns that Guillermo del Toro’s 2018 film The Shape of Water is, in many ways, “substantially similar” to Mr Zindel’s 1969 play Let Me Hear You Whisper.
In fact, Mr Zindel’s family are challenging production company Fox Searchlight and director Mr del Toro in relation to “at least 61 similarities” between the two works, a report in BBC News suggests.
A complaint filed on Wednesday 21 February reveals that these similarities relate to “the story, elements, characters, and themes” allegedly shared by the two works – which both have Cold War settings and follow a shy caretaker who falls in love with an amphibious humanoid man.
“The glaring similarities between the film and our father’s play are too extensive for us to ignore and so we had to act,” the late playwright’s son, David Zindel, said.
The legal challenge comes just days ahead of the Academy Awards or ‘Oscars’ ceremony in Los Angeles, which will take place on Sunday 4 March – leading Fox Searchlight to presume that Mr Zindel’s family are attempting to pressure them into settling the matter quickly out of Court.
A spokesperson on behalf of the studio described the family’s claims as “baseless” and “wholly without merit.”
Nevertheless, they indicated that the studio would “vigorously defend” both itself and the “original film.”