Courts granted Warner Bro's motion to dismiss a lawsuit from author Tess Gerritsen who claims that the film Gravity was based on her novel Gravity. Although Warner Bro's wins for now, Tess Gerritsen has said that she will press on with the lawsuit.
Some facts:
- in 1999, Gerritsen sold movie rights of her novel Gravity to New Line Productions (getting "based on" credits and a percentage of the profits). Her novel is also about a female astronaut who is stranded in the International Space Station as the rest of her crew is killed by satellite debris
- In 2008, WB acquired New Line Productions
- In 2008 - 2009, Alfonso Cuaron wrote his screenplay Gravity, also about a female astronaut stranded aboard the International Space Station and later drifts off into space alone
- In February 2014, Gerritsen learns that Alfonso Cuaron was attached to direct her Gravity project in 2000, leaving her to believe that the similarities between her novel and his film were not just coincidental
- Her team filed a Breach of Contract, but WB stated that they had no obligation to honor New Line's contract with her
Gerritsen wrote on her website: The court issued a long, detailed, and very thoughtful opinion in which it noted that we need to include more facts in our pleading relative to the relationship between Warner Bros. and New Line [...] We will push on.
source: tessgerritsen