In a lawsuit that we forgot was happening, a judge has ruled that “Disturbia,” the film that made Shia LaBeouf a star, does not infringe on the copyright of “Rear Window.”
The suit was brought to court by the very un-fun sounding people The Sheldon Abend Revocable Trust who argued that D.J. Caruso’s film bore more than a striking resemblance to the plot of the Cornell Woolrich short story that inspired Alfred Hitchock’s classic film.
But New York District Court judge Laura Taylor Swan is having none of that ruling, “The main plots are similar only at a high, unprotectible level of generality,” with Swan adding, “Where ‘Disturbia’ is rife with sub-plots, the short story has none. The setting and mood of the short story are static and tense, whereas the setting and mood of ‘Disturbia’ are more dynamic and peppered with humor and teen romance.”
This is probably the only case in history where the judge probably had to head down to Blockbuster and rent “Disturbia.”
So there you have it. It’s now legal and on the books: “Disturbia” is not a ripoff of “Rear Window.” For all you budding filmmakers out there looking to make a name for yourselves, find a classic film, pitch it at a teen audience, throw in some junky subplots and your ass is covered. And who says Hollywood is out of ideas? [Reuters]
I liked Disturbia. I watched it alone, during the day, on a bright, sunny day, and it still managed to give me the heebie jeebies (that's a technical term). The sudden car crash at the beggining was pretty brutal. Shia sucks though. He needs to stop making movies.
And see, "Disturbia" reminded much more of "Fright Night" (both the original and, based on reading the script, the remake) which I am sure was inspired by "Rear Window" as well.
"Fright Night" does have the suburban element, the mom in danger, the teen romance, and the humor that the judge found missing from the "Rear Window" story.
By all accounts, the Woolrich story was very different from the movie "Rear Window." Since the movie was clearly cribbing from the older movie and not the story, that was likely one problem here.