![]() She also contends the movie stole her idea of the fictionalized relationship between ex-president Adams and Cinque, the dignified African leader of the rebellion. But Chase-Riboud contends in her suit that "Amistad" lifted numerous original ideas from her novel, including a fictional abolitionist character, played in the film by Morgan Freeman. Lawsuits over credit are common in Hollywood. The case went to the Supreme Court, where the slaves' case was successfully argued by ex-president John Quincy Adams. Initially charged with murder, the slaves were aided by abolitionists who argued that the subjugated captives were kidnapping victims. "Amistad" is based on a case that sparked a storm of controversy in antebellum America but has since faded from prominence, the saga of a boatload of West African slaves who mutinied and killed several of their captors off Cuba in 1839, then sailed into U.S. Granting of the motion would have been a major embarrassment to Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG, the three-year-old studio that made "Amistad." The film, a nearly three-hour epic starring Anthony Hopkins, Matthew McConaughey and Morgan Freeman, is the studio's first prestige project and is considered a likely candidate in several Oscar categories. "We are going to go to the premiere tonight and have a wonderful time and forget about all this," she said as she left the courtroom. Now to have the burden of carrying this trial through to the end will be a major burden for me." Producer Debbie Allen, who tried to get "Amistad" made for more than a decade and said she had no idea of the existence of Chase-Riboud's book until recently, expressed relief. "When I walked in here I said that a preliminary injunction was the only protection a poor person had against a rich infringer. ![]() ![]() "I am disappointed," said Chase-Riboud outside the downtown federal courthouse. District Judge Audrey Collins allowed Chase-Riboud's lawsuit to proceed, she said in a 24-page ruling that "because the plaintiff has failed to meet her burden the court denies the plaintiff's motion" to stop the film from opening. A federal judge refused today to block distribution of the new Steven Spielberg drama, "Amistad," saying there was insufficient evidence that the film had plagiarized a novel about a 19th-century slave mutiny.Īward-winning author Barbara Chase-Riboud sought a temporary injunction to hold up the $70 million film, which opens this week around the country, arguing that the "Amistad" screenplay stole from "Echo of Lions," her fictionalized account of the slave uprising.
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