Camden novelist Tess Gerritsen’s lawsuit against movie studio Warner Bros. alleging that the 2013 Oscar-winning film “Gravity” was based on her 1999 novel of the same name has been dismissed by a California judge, who said the best-selling author can refile her complaint with new evidence.
In the original lawsuit, filed in April 2014, Gerritsen alleged that Warner Bros. breached a written contract that she signed with Katja Motion Picture Corp., a subsidiary of New Line Production, to potentially produce her book as a film. New Line was purchased by Warner Bros. in 2008.
Gerritsen alleges that her novel was the basis for the movie, directed by Alfonso Cuaron and starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. In Gerritsen’s novel, an astronaut is stranded aboard a space station after the rest of her crew is killed. In Cuaron’s movie, two astronauts, played by Bullock and Clooney, attempt to reach a space station, which is severely damaged by debris; Bullock’s character eventually has to find a way to return to Earth safely.
The writer sought a minimum of $10 million of the film’s $700 million in gross box office earnings. The complaint is based on a $1 million contract Gerritsen signed with Katja in 1999 to sell the book’s feature film rights. The contract also specified Gerritsen would receive a $500,000 production bonus, and 2.5 percent of the film’s net proceeds, if it was made.
Judge Margaret Morrow of U.S. District Court in Central California ruled on Jan. 30 that Gerritsen and her lawyers did not provide ample evidence that Warner Bros. is responsible for the actions of New Line and Katja. Morrow granted a motion to dismiss by the film company, but she also gave Gerritsen 20 days to revise her complaint to amend deficiencies in her filing and refile it. However, Gerritsen cannot file any new claims.
On a blog post on her website, Gerritsen admits that she did not understand the difference between a breach of contract lawsuit and a copyright infringement lawsuit, and she has since learned much more about the difference between the two.
“This is why my breach of contract lawsuit against Warner Bros. has two firm legs to stand on. It’s not difficult to see that ‘Gravity’ [the book] has more than a few material elements in common with the film. My book is under contract to Warner Bros.’ subsidiary. And Cuaron was at the very least ‘inspired’ by the concepts of my novel,” said Gerritsen on her blog. “It also explains why Warner Bros. is so determined to declare itself not bound by the contract I signed with New Line.”
Gerritsen’s lawyer Glen Kulik also issued a statement, agreeing that he and his client needed to amend the technical deficiencies in their complaint and that they plan to do so.
“The court issued a long, detailed and very thoughtful opinion in which it noted that we need to include more facts in our pleading relative to the relationship between Warner Bros. and New Line — that was the only issue before the court on the motion. This happens quite often in litigation, and now we need to go ahead and file an amended complaint which corrects the technical deficiencies using the court’s decision as our roadmap,” said Kulik. “I do not think that will be hard to do as we have learned a great deal more information about the Warner Bros. and New Line relationship since the original complaint was filed.”
However, the movie studio had a different take on it. In a statement, Warner Bros. expressed gratification that the initial lawsuit was dismissed.
“We are very gratified by the court’s ruling, as there is no merit to these claims,” read the statement. “As the plaintiff herself has admitted, ‘Yeah, ‘Gravity’ is a great film, but it’s not based on my book,’” referring to Gerritsen’s Oct. 2013 blog post.
Gerritsen has lived with her family in Camden in 1990. She is best known as the author of the popular Rizzoli & Isles series of books, upon which a TNT TV series is based.
