Mel Gibson Accused of Plagiarizing Apocalypto

Posted by on January 3rd, 2007   Filed under: Movies

It seems like a week doesn’t pass anymore without someone in the movie world getting accused of plagiarism. Most of the time these lawsuits seem to be a bit of a stretch, and they never really amount to much. I mean, it’s like the whole Blair Witch Project vs The Last Broadcast debate. The Blair Witch Project may have had a similar concept, but it also executed that concept a thousand times more skillfully (plus it was marketed better too). It’s hard for anyone in a creative industry to avoid being influenced by other works.

This time around it seems that Mel Gibson has become the latest target of a lawsuit. Mexican filmmaker Juan Catlett says that Gibson has lifted scenes for Apocalypto directly from his 1991 movie Retorno a Aztlán (Return To Aztlan). Catlett claims that Gibson’s production manager requested a copy of the movie while Apocalypto was in production. Come on Mel, the least you could have done is paid for a copy of the movie you ripped off! One can only wonder if Catlett still would have bothered pursuing legal action if Apocalypto hadn’t done $15 million on its opening weekend.

» Related Link: Digital Spy



  • Henrik

    On one hand there is a point of saying, that these lawsuits probably wouldn’t have happened if the movie had not been succesful, and they are all about cashing in, and the people are less concerned with the actual ‘crime’ or whatever.

    However, put yourself in his shoes. Taking legal action is expensive. And if you are going to spend time on this, wouldn’t you make sure it’s going to be worth it in the end? Like in order to even make a lawsuit, you have to settle on an amount to sue for right? At least unless it’s like the da vinci code where they tried to get the movie banned. And in order to determine that number, you have to be aware of how much money the movie made, right?

    I don’t know… I don’t really care all that much about lawsuits, much less this particular case or even movie. But I do think that it’s a little easy to bash people who sue after a movie has made some money.