Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers are sued AGAIN for copyright infringement over unpublished script
Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer and Netflix are being sued for copyright infringement over an unpublished script.
A company has claimed the idea for the hit show was taken from a screenplay titled Totem, which was written by Jeffrey Kennedy.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday at a California federal court by Irish Rover Entertainment, the Netflix show copies Totem’s ‘plot, sequence, characters, theme, dialogue, mood, and setting, as well as copyrighted concept art.’
Lawsuit: Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers are being sued AGAIN for copyright infringement over an unpublished script, with a lawsuit being filed on Wednesday
It was claimed Aaron Sims connects the two projects as he is said to have worked with Kennedy during the screenplay’s development, before then being hired to make Stranger Things’ concept art for its first two seasons.
Totem focused on a girl named Kimimela, or Kimi, who has supernatural abilities and helps friends find a portal to an alternate plane where they fight off its inhabitants, including a ‘dark spirit named Azrael and his army of Blackwolf.’
The lawsuit claims Stranger Things mirrors this concept, as it says: ‘In Stranger Things, one of the characters is a little girl name Eleven or El for short who has supernatural powers.
Claim: A company have claimed the idea for the hit show created by Matt and Ross Duffer (pictured in January) was taken from a screenplay titled Totem, written by Jeffrey Kennedy
‘Eleven helps her friends find the portal gate to an alternate supernatural plane and helps them battle the plane’s inhabitants; a Shadow Monster and his army of Demogorgon.’
In response to the lawsuit, a Netflix representative told The Wrap: ‘Mr. Kennedy has been peddling these far-fetched conspiracy theories for years, even though Netflix has repeatedly explained to him that The Duffer Brothers had never heard of him or his unpublished script until he began threatening to sue them.
‘After we refused to give in to his demands for a payoff, he filed this baseless lawsuit. There is no shortage of people who would like to claim credit for creating Stranger Things.
‘But the truth is the show was independently conceived by The Duffer Brothers, and is the result of their creativity and hard work.’
This isn’t the first time the Duffer Brothers have been sued over Stranger Things, as Charles Kessler claimed they had stolen his idea from his 2012 short film Montauk, which was used to create the Netflix hit series in 2018.
In May last year, Charles pulled the plug on the lawsuit two days before the trial was slated to begin in Los Angeles.
Copyright infringement: According to the lawsuit, the show copies Totem’s ‘plot, sequence, characters, theme, dialogue, mood, and setting, as well as copyrighted concept art’
Kessler issued a statement to TMZ, where he essentially recanted all of his previous claims that the Duffer Brothers had ‘stolen’ his idea.
‘After hearing the deposition testimony this week of the legal expert I hired, it is now apparent to me that, whatever I may have believed in the past, my work had nothing to do with the creation of Stranger Things,’ the statement began.
‘Documents from 2010 and 2013 prove that the Duffers independently created their show. As a result, I have withdrawn my claim and I will be making no further comment on this matter.’
Not true: In response, a Netflix representative said they’ve ‘repeatedly explained to him that The Duffer Brothers had never heard of him… until he began threatening to sue them’