Guillermo del Toros Shape of Water Plagiarism Lawsuit Dismissed

Guillermo del Toro’s Shape of Water Plagiarism Lawsuit Dismissed

A lawsuit alleging that Guillermo del Toro plagiarized his Oscar-winning film The Shape of Water has been dismissed with del Toro in the clear.

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Guillermo del Toros Shape of Water Plagiarism Lawsuit Dismissed

A lawsuit alleging that director Guillermo del Toro plagiarized his Academy Award-winning film The Shape of Water has been dismissed. The film, which was written by del Toro and Vanessa Taylor, follows Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins), a cleaner at a government facility housing an Amphibian Man (Doug Jones), referred to as the “asset.” Elisa, who is mute, communicates primarily through sign language and it is through this form of communication that she forges a bond with the Amphibian Man and helps him escape from the clutches of the government who wishes to exploit him and experiment on his body.

Right before voting began for the 2018 Oscars, at which The Shape of Water was expected to be a major competitor, a copyright lawsuit was filed against del Toro. The suit alleged that del Toro had plagiarized Pulitzer Prize-winning author Paul Zindel’s play Let Me Hear You Whisper. Zindel’s play revolves around a similar story of a creature imprisoned in a government facility who captures the attention of a woman that works at the facility. Both Fox Searchlight Pictures and del Toro denied claims that he had plagiarized the story.

Now, THR reports that the lawsuit has been dismissed. David Zindel, the son of Paul Zindel and the person who filed the lawsuit, admitted that his claims of plagiarism were unfounded. Zindel acknowledges del Toro as the “true creator” of The Shape of Water and says that any similarities between the film and the play are merely coincidental.

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The lawsuit initially bounced around the court system for a few years, with one judge deciding that the premises of both the film and the play were too generic to be protected under copyright law. That decision was appealed and the lawsuit was set to begin again in the coming weeks with both sides presenting arguments to the court. With the lawsuit dropped, though, that will no longer be happening. While the similarities between The Shape of Water and Let Me Hear You Whisper are uncanny, it sounds like this was a situation of pure coincidence rather than theft of ideas.

Del Toro is known for his wildly original films, many of which directly involve him in the writing process. Copyright lawsuits are commonplace in Hollywood and with so many people generating ideas, many common tropes of specific genres are likely to pop up in different projects. James Cameron’s Avatar was famously hit with multiple lawsuits alleging copyright infringement and that’s just one instance of many where copyright issues have come into play in the industry. The Shape of Water is another prominent example, bolstered by its critical success, but it’s clear with the conclusion of this lawsuit that del Toro did not have malicious intent in the writing of his film.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/shape-water-movie-lawsuit-plagiarism-dismissed/

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