Angelica Krauss

Film 183B
February 3, 2015
This Week In Media: Week 5

Judge downs Gravity lawsuit from

bestselling author Tess Gerritsen
By Ben Beaumont-Thomas
A US judge has thrown out a contract-breach claim made against
Warner Bros, the studio who made Oscar-winning space thriller Gravity.
Tess Gerritsen, the bestselling thriller novelist, sold the film rights to
her book Gravity to production company Katja in 1999, who in turn
were owned by New Line. She was paid $1m, with an extra $500,000
and 2.5% net profits promised if a film was subsequently produced.
She alleges that the film adaptation of Gravity is based on her book,
and is seeking $10m in damages.
Her book differs somewhat from the film while both concern a woman
in peril in outer space, her book features a biohazard plotline in which
a deadly microbe attacks astronauts on board a space station. But her
contention is only that the film is based on her book; she says that
she also came up with the scenes of satellite debris damaging the
space station in an early screenplay version of the story.
The judge, Margaret Morrow, has said that despite New Line being
bought out by Warner Bros in 2008, Gerritsen cannot prove that the
Gravity rights and contracts have been passed from Katja to New Line
to Warner Bros. No plausible inference arises from these allegations
that WB was a party to the contracts or that Katja produced the film,
Morrow stated, adding that Gerritsen does not detail how it is that WB
exercises complete management, control, ownership and domination
over New Line and Katja. Without a factual basis, her conclusory
allegations are insufficient.
Writing on her website, Gerritsen responded:
This is alarming on many levels, and the principles involved go far
beyond my individual lawsuit. Every writer who sells film rights to
Hollywood must now contend with the possibility that the studio they
signed the contract with could be swallowed up by a larger company

and that parent company can then make a movie based on your book
without compensating you. It means Hollywood contracts are
worthless.
She had previously written off any similarities between the film and the
book, saying the two had absolutely no connection, but once she
discovered that Alfonso Cuaron, the films director and co-screenwriter,
had been attached as far back as 2000, she said the similarities could
no longer be dismissed as coincidence.
Warner Bros responded to the judges decision with its own statement:
We are very gratified by the courts ruling, as there is no merit to
these claims. As the plaintiff herself has admitted, Yeah, Gravity is a
great film, but its not based on my book.
Gerritsen now has 20 days to amass new evidence to present in the
case, before it is dismissed entirely.