'Stranger Things' Creators Sued for Allegedly Stealing Idea
Netflix
TV

Charlie Kessler accuses Matt and Ross Duffer of ripping off his 2012 movie titled 'Montauk', which he pitched to the duo for a series back in 2014.

AceShowbiz - "Stranger Things" creators Matt and Ross Duffer are being sued for allegedly ripping off a filmmaker's idea for the hit Netflix series. Charlie Kessler filed the suit on Monday, April 2 in Los Angeles.

Obtained by PEOPLE, the suit claims that the Duffer brothers stole the idea of his short movie titled "Montauk" about government experiments. Kessler describes the movie as a "science fiction story set in the town of Montauk, New York, the location of various urban legends and paranormal and conspiracy theories" with the primary location of the story an "abandoned military base."

The movie, which was premiered in 2012 and won an award at the Hamptons International Film Festival, was pitched to the duo in 2014 at a party at the Tribeca Film Festival. "At this party, the script, ideas, story and film referred to were discussed and present to [the duo]," Kessler writes.

The plan was to make it into a series called "The Montauk Project". He also said that he "presented materials" to detail the project. Not long after that, the Duffers sold "Stranger Things" to Netflix, and it was reported that the show was initially titled "Montauk".

The Emmy-nominated series was originally set in Montauk, Long Island, before it was changed to Indiana. Kessler's oiginal "Montauk" outline also has a slew of similar things which may be found on "Stranger Things", including a story of a young boy who disappears and a cop with a haunted past trying to find him. It also has the story of a secret experiment on children as well as a monster that's created by a portal to another dimension.

"After the massive success of 'Stranger Things' ... Defendants have made huge sums of money by producing the series based on Plaintiff's Concepts," writes Kessler's attorney Michael Kernan. The filmmaker is now seeking an injunction ordering the Duffer brothers to stop using his concepts and to destroy all materials based on those concepts, as well as restitution, lost profits and punitive damages.

Follow AceShowbiz.com @ Google News

You can share this post!

You might also like
Related Posts