Matrix script stolen? - "Third Eye" Sophia Steward, 1981

[Sammy]

old news?
I'll be following this lawsuit to see what happens...

http://www.daghettotymz.com/matrix/matrix.html

[N D Hill]

Wow...Maybe the sequels would've done better if she had written them.

[nil]

for some reason, im not all that surprised...thanks for the link/info, sammy.


Wow...Maybe the sequels would've done better if she had written them.
rofl

[conceptx]

Am very supprised... but wat if she wins the case then what happens next... and how come this started in 1999 but it's only go to my hears in 2005 [yah we are almost there]

[cotron]

Ride da riddem of zion, for jah I rite da matricks trilogeez!

[Badger]

Just a different angle:
Well the matrix's story is an amalgamation of lots of different bits and bobs, from ancient philosophy to ghost in the shell to the bible, many people have probably came up with a similar idea. Plato could probably claim it’s a rip off of his allegory of the cave, and bits stem from Kantian thinking too… Oh dear, I seem to be rambling.
-Badger-

[N D Hill]

the more I look at the page, the fewer actual similarities I see. Apperently the "virtual reality" idea was not hers...Um...I guess I had considered that to be the main focal point of the Matrix. Also, she's suing James Cameron as she claims that the Terminator was her idea as well. I believe that came out in 1984...Why take so long? I suggest you guys listen to that WAV interview there. After that, I really get the impression that these "facts" being presented are incredably biased and paranoid. She's even listed the concept artists and people who've independently contributed to the online comics as thieves.

...never the less, that's still no excuse for two shitty sequels.

[bRyaN]

It's a big discussion over at CGTalk...

And some of the people there have been doing research for facts about the case...

So far nothing has turned out on none of the news wires nor law websites..

Some people are calling bullshit...

And for the record the sequels weren't shitty...

[N D Hill]

And for the record the sequels weren't shitty...

I think you'll have a harder time proving that than the Woman's claims.

[helix7]

I'm predicting that next she'll claim to have been the creator of E.T.

And I also think the sequels weren't shitty.

[jetpack42]

The sequels were just that. They just took the original movie to a further ending point. They didn't expand or really explore the Matrix, come up with new ideas or theories, explain much further various natures and possibilites. They added a couple characters and let Keanu rasp and look dramatically to another conclusion.

In comparison with all the rest of movies out there, they were mediocre.

In comparison with the potential, the scope, and brilliance of the first movie, they were miserable failures.

[Floris Didden]

The Matrix is like Halo. Nice, but overrated.

[0kelvin]

That interview was hilarious. So she took the Bible and stuck robots in, and then the Wachowskis took her story and stuck bullet-time in.

I think the trilogy would've been better without Reloaded. It wasn't nearly as good as the other two, the whole movie seemed like a collection of pointless sidequests. And I think people were unfairly hard on Revolutions (which I think was the best of the series) because of the disappointment of Reloaded.


0kelvin

[Daunting]

I heard that they stole the story for the matrix quite a few years ago. Never heard anything behind that. heard it was a woman and a host of other people. Oh well I liked it all that matters.

[conceptx]

Well even if the amalgamation is old and may be in so many other stories am very sure they all don't define some specific aspects the same way like characters if you listen to Sophia's argument [which I did cos I really didn't believe till I did] you will see her point.
Also you should note that the fact this lawsuit hasn't been that publicised it means something. There is no reason to why Revolutions failed to satisfy "us"... the movie is so incomplete in my view e.g THE MEROVIGIAN is just taken over by pointing a gun in him the guy who said he had survived "them" 6 times ??? don't you realise?? lol

[darth massacre]

We'll know when the lawsuit ends....whether she wins it or whatever happens. I'm sure every boxoffice top seller has their own fair share of copyright infringement lawsuits so I believe big studios have seen tonnes of such events before. Probably the biggest thing in her life....but one of many who sues production companies each year unsuccesfully. We'll see how it goes.


I do agree with Jetpack though. The sequels were meant to finish up the story of NEO and gang.....but everything that we need to know about The Matrix was all said and done in the first part. Did they suck? I didn't feel satisfied but they didn't suck....different people different opinions. That zion mass orgy sequence could be cut totally and it wouldn't affect the story one bit.

[Chris J. Anderson!]

conceptx said: the movie is so incomplete in my view e.g THE MEROVIGIAN is just taken over by pointing a gun in him the guy who said he had survived "them" 6 times ??? don't you realise?? lol
HHHHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

[mordecaidesign]

I call BS.

Or at least bad design/bad pr/ bad everything...

In the most recent press release they spelled "Matrix", Matix.

Next time hire a REAL pr rep.

[wassermelone]

I call BS.

Perhaps they are extremely similar stories but that doesn't mean that they copied some obscure person's story.

Havn't you ever had an idea... told no one about it, and then later that idea or a similar thing is used? It doesn't mean they copied you... its just that you both had the same idea. I mean considering that the Matrix is such an amalgam of different ancient influences... its not hard to think that perhaps they just both had the same ideas independent of one another.

There is the old adage:
Great minds think alike, but fools seldom differ.

I think it applies pretty well here.
-toasty

[darth massacre]

Havn't you ever had an idea... told no one about it, and then later that idea or a similar thing is used?

When I was taking a advertisement/concept development class for the first time back in late 98, my teacher said something like this:

"Whenever you had an idea, at least 6 others around the world before or after you would have the same idea. So you gotta strike when the iron is hot."

I don't know where he got his statistic from, but so far it's proven correct for me. I go on gaming forums, modding forums and I see the same ideas being repeated again and again until someone finishes a mod, then the rest gave up because they were too slow to implement it. Coz its just so similar.

Its either our concepts are limited because of our common knowledge, hence the similarity in ideas, or because there are just only so many brilliant ideas to begin with....created by geniuses, and all we can do is twist it around to tell our own stories.

For Example. The story of Romeo and Juliet has been told in dozens of different formats, with dozens of different characters across different cultures and languages. The tragic story of 2 lovers only to be united in death is such a simple tearjerker that every civilisation that understands how painful it is to not be together will be able to feel for the characters.

I've not been able to find this essay she wrote "The Third Eye" on the internet. According to folks on Matrix forums who had read it, they couldn't find similarities in the first few pages of it.....which should've covered one of the parts she used to claim the script being hers.....Supposedly the white rabbit was on the girl's arm, but WB swapped it onto the back to prevent infringement. If we could read it, we'd know for sure if there are similarities.....and according to her Terminator also took ideas from her essay.

Then it was pointed out she swiped her ideas from "Book of Relevations" in the Holy Bible.....so errr.....wouldn't the Wachowskis or Cameron be able to read the Holy Bible instead of going through a 3rd party translation of the original text? (In the Ultimate Matrix Collection the messiah's rise from "Book of Revelations" was also used to link it to Neo's rise....and this was by associate professors teaching philosophy and religion studies).

Well I'm quite the Matrix fan but I don't think it was fully original....just that its wonderful how they managed to pull in so many different ideas and teachings into one trilogy. But for someone to claim that one article alone was the sole influence for the story when we can link The Matrix to so many more brilliant, original sci-fi and religious texts from the past.....

We just need that original essay. Then the we'll know for sure.

[Presence]

One thing that no one has really gotten into is what a matrix the Matrix is in terms of source material.

http://webpages.charter.net/btakle/matrix_reloaded.html#disobey

[0kelvin]

This scared me for a little while.

http://www.slccglobelink.com/main.cfm/include/detail/storyid/785067.html

They claimed she won the lawsuit, which is strange because it surely would've been a huge story if it were true. And of course, it is not.

http://davidpoland.typepad.com/thehotblog/2004/12/more_on_termina.html

The plot thickens!




0kelvin

[MattyRyan]

Part of the problem is that this stems from the fact that this woman submitted a script to the Wachowski brothers. it gets really fuzzy and gray after that.

[Erik]

(almost) nothing is original.

art is a collage of thoughts.
thoughts are created at least partly from outside influence.
the most powerful way of evoking emotion is by analogy.

[Nero's Master]

Amen, Darth. *bows* You took the words right out of my...uh...mind... :teeth:

[Chris J. Anderson!]

darth massacre - Yes!! You said exactly what I was thinking. Funny, sense your talking about those who have similar or the same ideas, Blahaha!