Suddenly, Death Race Must Outrun A Lawsuit

Update: The suit (described below)  attempting to prevent Death Race being released because of  writer Adam Stone's contention  that it plagiarized his script has been thrown out of federal court as baseless. Here's Universal's announcement:

Universal Pictures and the filmmakers of "Death Race" are gratified by the federal court's swift and decisive [action]  today denying Adam Stone's application for a temporary restraining order.   Universal looks forward to releasing "Death Race" in theaters nationwide on Friday and to proving in the pending lawsuit that Mr. Stone's baseless allegations of plagiarism are entirely without merit

It's all too typical that in the week the British-born, L.A.-based Impact Pictures team of Paul W.S. Anderson and Jeremy Bolt release what should be their biggest blockbuster, Death Race, they'll be sharing the spotlight with two fellow producers who happen to be named Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise.

Each of the latter are undergoing a churning week of news coverage as Wagner splits from the partnership heading United Artists, and Cruise, amid a career sea-change, has been named as putative star of three different projects.

But the unkindest cut has to be the lawsuit filed Tuesday asserting that the film, opening wide Friday, partakes of numerous elements of a screenplay one Adam Stone had submitted to the producing pair during the time they were updating B-movie king Roger Corman's 1975 Death Race 2000.
Stone, claiming his Joust screenplay became a "blueprint" for Anderson's Death Race script, is seeking to block the release of the film.

Also named is the film's distributor, Universal. Comments from the studio and from Bolt, whom this writer interviewed by phone earlier in the day from the set of Pandorum in Germany, were not immediately forthcoming.

For Bolt and Anderson, who have built a dossier of box office successes adding up to $600 million while flying under the Hollywood radar (often thanks to support from their German production partner, Constantin) it's an ironic turn of events.

And though Cruise and Wagner would be due but a small percentage of Death Race's take, each still has some skin in the game in terms of prestige. A hit is a hit, and they could use one.

The current version of Death Race had its beginning in 1995, when Cruise was near the peak of his clout as both actor and producer--working on what would be the back-to-back hits Mission: Impossible and Jerry Maguire.

Meantime, Bolt and Anderson were having a surprise score ($120 million worldwide on a $20 million budget) with their film adaptation of videogame Mortal Kombat. Their debut action film, Shopping, had been admired by Corman. Over lunch, he asked the pair what films in his library appealed to them.

"Paul just shouted, Death Race!" recalls Bolt. As Anderson told Emanuel Levy, "It was the movie your parents didn't want you to see, because it was just packed with senseless violence and unmotivated nudity. So, of course I just loved it."

Anderson and Bolt were prepping to make Event Horizon for Paramount (that film would tank commercially, but its zany opening camera move over the sacrosanct Paramount logo and 20 gory minutes that had to be cut to even reach an R rating made quite a mark). From their position as favored producers on the Paramount lot, Cruise and Wagner took an interest in the Brits' work.

Paramount signed on for Death Race and was happy to hand the two young Brits over to the seasoned Cruise and Wagner.

Slowly Bolt and Anderson, along with Cruise and Wagner ("There was a lot of back and forth," recalls Bolt) decided that the Corman original, which, like its notorious, kindred videogame featured drivers knocking down pedestrians like tenpins, needed a "re-imagining."

That's when writer Stone alleges he presented his Joust script. His suit claims some 39 elements of his version can be found in the film.

Meanwhile, Paramount's interest itnmaking the project was lingering if not robust, and the film was trapped in development.

But Bolt and Anderson's luck with Death Race had started to change when Bolt and the team's savvy manager Ken Kamins went to New York to met with David Linde, then head of the genre label Rogue Pictures, part of the Focus Features shop at Universal.

When Linde ascended to co-chairmanship of Universal, he began a prolonged campaign to pry loose Death Race from Paramount.

Bolt and Anderson were meanwhile notching an exemplary commercial record, as their series of Resident Evil pictures, coming out via Sony's Screen Gems label, went from the 2002 debut ($102 million worldwide on a budget of $33 million) to the 2004 sequel ($129 million) to another in 2007 ($147 million).

With Anderson's Alien Vs. Predator scoring $171 million in 2004, the duo had an enviable commercial track record.

As the team's pictures became known for a box office take overseas that far outstripped their domestic results, Paramount bargained hard for Universal to pay a premium (over the standard fifty-fifty deal) for the right to distribute Death Race overseas. When Linde dug in his heels--although he agreed to cover costs Paramount had incurred in development--his rival relented and the project was mounted by Universal.

Even with Uni's enthusiasm, the rest wasn't exactly academic, as Anderson and the studio tweaked the film to be sure they didn't overlap with the high-gloss, burning-rubber look and feel of the studio's The Fast and the Furious franchise.

Anderson went for a gritty, near-future look, with a theme of over-amped reality TV to match. His dark scenario would serve as a springboard for seasoned actors like Joan Allen and Ian McShane. Jason Statham had come along rapidly as a Steve McQueen-style leading man, helping insure good box-office worldwide. Finally, in 2007, the picture began shooting in Montreal.

Initial plans to bring it out in December were rethought as the film began testing well with the kind of young males that can elevate summer action flicks into blockbusters, and the new August date was selected in the hopes that The Dark Knight would finally be sputtering, and Tropic Thunder at least declining in time for Death Race to step in and possibly dominate two or three weekends.

Bolt watched with satisfaction this week as Universal, having held about 60 percent of its marketing budget for the last days leading to release, pounded the marketplace with television ads. "I like that they don't run scared from the Olympics or the competition." Along with the studio, he held fervent hopes for a No. 1 weekend and box office approaching $30 million.

But with a lawsuit possibly underfoot, the studio and the filmmakers approached that fateful weekend with an entirely new set of worries.

---