Hollywood Cloned Our Clone Movie, Say Cult Film-makers

An independent film company is alleging that a big Hollywood studio has cloned its film about clones.

In The Island, released tomorrow in Britain, a man played by Ewan McGregor goes on the run after discovering that he is part of a colony of clones being kept as spare parts for the rich and ailing.

In The Clonus Horror, released in 1979, a man played by Timothy Donnelly goes on the run after discovering he is part of a colony of clones - kept as spare parts for the rich and ailing.

One film cost DreamWorks and Warner Bros $125m (£73m) to make; the other cost Clonus Associates $250,000. One film has been derided by critics and has turned into the box-office flop of the year in the US. The other has been ignored by critics but become a cult classic.

Now the two films are to meet in a New York court after the production company behind The Clonus Horror filed a lawsuit against the producers of The Island alleging 90 instances in which the later film was identical to The Clonus Horror.

"I went to see it and my mouth fell open," said Myrl Schreibman, co-producer of The Clonus Horror and now a film professor at the University of California. "It's our story unfolding. On one hand it was flattering but on the other hand you have to ask where's the ethic in film-making?"

The producers of The Clonus are asking for unspecified damages, part of the proceeds from The Island and the film's withdrawal from distribution.

The similarities have been noted by publications and websites, including Premiere magazine, which said: "The first hour of The Island plays like a much more expensive albeit scene-for-scene remake."

The suit alleges that characters, costumes, setting, action scenes, even the sequence of scenes and specific shots, are identical in both films.

The similarities, said Mr Schreibman, were unprecedented. "There's never been a case like this because it's the stealing of a movie that's already been made," he said.

Previous suits alleging copyright infringement, he said, had focused on the alleged theft of distinct elements of a film never the entire film.

"I saw it and frankly really wanted it to be different so I wouldn't have the burden of going through this," said The Clonus Horror's director and co-producer Robert Fiveson, who was alerted to the similarities after he was asked if The Island was a remake. "I enjoyed The Island, and thought, wow, if I had had $120m to make my movie," he said.

But, he said, his appreciation of the new film did not affect his conviction that it had been taken directly from his film.

"The film stands squarely on the armature of Clonus," he said. "There's no difference. It's like a DNA test. You ask what is the probability of this occurring by chance in nature. In this instance, it is zero."

DreamWorks and Warner Brothers have 20 days to respond to the suit, at which time a judge will rule whether there are grounds for a federal injunction.

In a statement DreamWorks said: "The Island was independently created and does not infringe anyone's copyrights."