Quentin Tarantino Sued for Stealing 'Django Unchained’ Premise

Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is being sued for copyright infringement. The over $100 million lawsuit alleges that the 52-year old Pulp Fiction legend stole the premise of his 2012 film Django Unchained, for which he won an Oscar for best original screenplay, from a 2004 WGA registered script titled Freedom. The suit, which also names the Weinstein Company and Columbia Pictures as defendants, was filed by Freedom screenwriters Oscar Colvin Jr. and Torrance J. Colvin.

Surprisingly, this isn't the first time the Inglorious Basterds writer/director has been accused of stealing an idea. Back in 2009 a man named Dannez Hunter sued Tarantino for over a million dollars claiming he stole his idea for Kill Bill. The suit was ultimately dismissed. Ironically, the Jackie Brown auteur's most recent legal drama comes less than a week after he received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and just a day before his new film, The Hateful Eight, opened in theaters.

The current complaint, filed in federal court, reads "Before Django Freeman (aka Jamie Foxx's character) there was an escaped slave named Jackson Freeman who desired to purchase his family's freedom from a malevolent plantation owner. Before Dr. Schultz, (aka Christoph Waltz's character) there was Samson, another white man, who would assist Mr. Freeman in his efforts to rescue his loved ones from slavery."

The suit goes on to say that Freedom's "uniquely original concept" was submitted to the William Morris Agency, who suggested Tarantino as a possible director for the proposed project. It further claims the Colvins "provided the heart, bones and muscles to develop the unique idea that eventually would be transformed into Django Unchained." and that Tarantino is an "admitted thief," having once said, "I steal from every single movie ever made."

Tarantino claims his screenplay is based on Italian director Sergio Corbucci's 1966 Django, but the Colvins claim there are more similarities between their script and Tarantino's graphic western. "There are a plethora of similarities between Freedom and Django Unchained." the suit states. "Defendants would call them coincidences, however, the intentional use of our work is neither an accident nor coincidence."  Tarantino has yet to comment on the impending court case but did just make an unannounced appearance at a recent Hateful Eight screening at the Austin Alamo Drafthouse theater where he and his friend and collaborator Robert Rodriguez engaged the audience in an impromptu Q & A.