From the "About Time" Files: Dreamworks Sued for Ripping Off 'Rear Window' in 'Disturbia'
Filed under: Classics, Thrillers, Mystery & Suspense, Universal, Celebrities and Controversy, Dreamworks, Steven Spielberg, Remakes and Sequels
The basic plot of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window -- man believes he witnessed a murder, has to prove it really happened -- has been reused for so many films and TV shows that it's not that surprising when another homage or ripoff comes around. Yet last year's Disturbia, starring Shia LaBeouf as a guy under house arrest who thinks his neighbor is a serial killer, bore close enough resemblance to be labeled an update on Hitchcock's film. And now, not surprisingly, Dreamworks, its parent company Viacom and Universal Pictures, are being sued for creating an unauthorized remake.*The defendant in the case is not exactly related to Hitchcock's film, though; the lawsuit was filed by Sheldon Abend Revocable Trust, which owns the rights to Cornell Woolrich's original short story "It Had to Be Murder" (called "Murder from a Fixed Viewpoint" in the article), upon which Rear Window is based. Film business followers may remember the name Sheldon Abend from the important Supreme Court copyright case of 1990, Stewart v. Abend, in which Abend sued James Stewart and the production company Patron Inc. after Rear Window was aired on television.
If you've seen both Disturbia and Rear Window do you think the case is valid? Is Disturbia really that much more of a ripoff than Manhattan Murder Mystery, Head Over Heels and most of Brian DePalma's early career? Even Antonioni's Blow Up and Coppola's The Conversation are fairly similar in concept. Obviously some works, such as the Simpsons episode in which Bart thinks Flanders murdered his wife, are okay because they fall under the permissions of parody.
*Note: We accidentally listed Steven Spielberg as an executive producer on Disturbia, though he was not. That information has been removed from the post. [ed]
And, more importantly, how will this suit affect Spielberg, Dreamworks and LaBeouf's upcoming Eagle Eye, which like Disturbia is also directed by D.J. Caruso, and which has similarly been compared to a Hitchcock film, specifically North by Northwest or broadly the whole of Hitch's wrong man films? I wonder who claims credit for that widely used plot.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-08-2008 @ 7:53PM
Andy Grey said...
I'd agree that Disturbia shared too much in common that this author shouldn't have been compensated. I haven't seen most of the other films you mention, but I really can't see there being that much in similarity between The Conversation. Two very different films.
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9-08-2008 @ 8:30PM
Travis Tidmore said...
Seriously? Disturbia was a big enough film that this lawsuit should have been filed a long time ago. It's almost as if they waited to see if the movie was going to make money and then waited another year before filling the lawsuit. It's ridiculous.
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9-08-2008 @ 9:58PM
jake said...
I've seen both films and I don't think they will just throw this case out -- the only thing similar is that he thinks he witnesses a murder from a window. Dialogue, situation, execution is completely different. I would even dare say that disturbia was better.
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9-08-2008 @ 10:20PM
Scott Weinberg said...
"Disturbia is better than Rear Window" is what you just said. In print.
I hope you sleep well tonight. ;)
9-09-2008 @ 1:17PM
Jonathan Kuhn said...
Seriously, I can't believe you just said "Disturbia" was better either.
The one thing I DIDN'T copy was not being totally stupid.
Here are a ton of examples:
http://slowclapchildren.blogspot.com/2008/08/berate-movie-vol-1.html
9-08-2008 @ 11:31PM
Neal said...
There have been other movies with similarities to Rear Window, but Disturbia does look like more of a straight forward knock-off than any movie I've seen. I mean, they just updated the characters and technology. They replaced Jimmy Stewart with Shia LaBeouf, and replaced a broken leg with a home monitoring ankle bracelet.
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9-08-2008 @ 11:39PM
Scott Weinberg said...
Each informed viewer has their own "line" where homage ends and theft begins. I thought this movie DID owe a bit too much to Rear Window, and I'm stunned that nobody at DreamWorks considered paying for the source material, if only to avoid something like this.
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9-09-2008 @ 10:22AM
Matt said...
It's the "trapped in his home while witnessing possible murder" that is the similarity. Not just "I think I saw a murder".
Yes, the lawsuit is valid. Hitchcock acquired rights like Spielberg should have done.
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9-09-2008 @ 1:35PM
hegster said...
i refused to see this movie because it did look like a blatant ripoff of Rear Window, one of my favorite films of all time.
i've vowed the same for Eagle Eye.
I guess that's the next trend in big-budget cinema: ripping off thriller classics your general audience is too ignorant to know about and too arrogant to care.
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9-09-2008 @ 1:41PM
Manic dave said...
I agree with some earlier comments. Disturbia borrowed more heavily from Rear Window than other similar films that may have used for plot devices. I still think that Disturbia is a stand alone film. More important, I think(though the courts may not agree) that there is a certain level of "public domain" that should be considered in this case. Such as Snow White, and such from Disney. These stories are not Disney owned. That's why some knock-off can be released on the same day as a Disney film on DVD, but for 10 or 20 dollars cheaper. Has Hitchcock become such a part of Amircana, that it has fallen into that grey area? I believe so personally.
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9-10-2008 @ 5:56PM
Sondra EVE HARRIS Hassman said...
Mr abend was a good friend of mine for many years and i know he is right now -where ever he is in heaven feeling very good indeed. He would not have let this film be made in the first place - and in my opinion you dont try to remake the mona Lisa . Steven Speilberg and all the rest of hollyweird today are just in it for the money - forget about art and doing what is right or legal Just call your lawyers Thumbs up Shelly You will win this too. Sondra Hassman (EVE HARRIS)
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9-10-2008 @ 6:26PM
Shay said...
I seriously thought it WAS a remake. I love Rear Window, have since the first day I saw it. I didn't think this "remake" was at all on par with Hitchcock's. Interesting to know that Alfred, himself, borrowed it.
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9-10-2008 @ 7:15PM
Connor said...
I dont think anything is gonna happen...they ripped it off completely but they didnt remake it. If it was a remake shia would be 35 and in a wheelchair.
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10-26-2008 @ 10:47AM
Frederick Richardson said...
Richard Matheson wrote an original story for The Twilight Zone television series, broadcast 3/16/62 on CBS; the episode titled “Little Girl Lost” about a child who falls through a portal in her bedroom wall and into another dimension. Her father using a rope tied around his waist enters the closing portal and pulls his daughter out just in the nick of time. The episode starred Tracy Stratford, Sarah Marshall and Robert Sampson.
“Poltergeist” (1982) was produced by Spielberg, who took sole authorship of the story and co-writing credit for the screenplay in which a child falls through a portal (her bedroom closet) and into another dimension. Her father, using a rope tied around his waist, enters this “portal” and pulls his daughter out just in the nick of time.
That thin line between homage or ripoff is something you toe, you don’t cross—not without giving attribution to the source material. This wasn’t done in the case of “Poltergeist”.
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