Colorado writers allege Disney stole “Pirates” plot

Screenwriters who claim they presented a screenplay to The Walt Disney Company called “Pirates of the Caribbean” in 1999 are suing in U.S. District Court in Denver claiming Disney Enterprises took their ideas and created a billion-dollar franchise without compensating them.

The federal case was filed Tuesday on behalf of screenwriters Arthur Lee Alfred II and Ezequiel Martinez and producer Tova Laiter.

The plaintiffs, who live in Colorado, are seeking jury awards for copyright infringement including punitive damages and injunctive relief to restrain Disney and its numerous affiliates from further infringement, the lawsuit says.

Disney has not responded to an email seeking comment on the lawsuit.

Disney pirated the plaintiff’s expression of themes, settings, dialogue, characters, plot, mood and sequence of events from their original spec screenplay, according to the lawsuit. Disney pilfered the plaintiff’s creation to capitalize on films, video games, theme park attractions, merchandising, casino games and literature, the lawsuit says.

But what is particularly galling to the screenwriters is how Disney took their creation and spun it into something historically inaccurate, depicting Captain Jack Sparrow as a funny pirate, who is not feared and is repeatedly referred to as a good man.

The lawsuit also claims Disney has a long history of disregarding copyright law and profiting from the work of others and cites similar complaints about other Disney projects including “Lion King,” “Toy Story,” “Monsters, Inc.,” “Up,” “Frozen,” “Inside Out” and “Zootopia.”

Laiter submitted “Red Hood,” written by Alfred and Martinez, to Disney in October 1999. Red Hood was separate from “Pirates of the Caribbean,” according to the lawsuit.

Disney chose to produce “Red Hood” and invited Alfred and Martinez to work with Disney employees Brigham Taylor, Josh Harmon and Michael Haynes on the development, the lawsuit said.

Without a completed contract, Alfred and Martinez made monthly trips to Disney without compensation.

As attorneys worked on a contract, the plaintiffs trusted Disney, the lawsuit says. Between October 1999 and October 2000, they worked with Disney’s creative team on “Red Hood.”

Alfred and Martinez also developed an idea for a separate screenplay entitled “Pirates of the Spanish Main.” They later retitled it “Pirates of the Caribbean” when they realized the Disneyland ride by that name had no story behind it.

They began incorporating the basic elements of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride into the screenplay while creating a new story with a supernatural element.

The final draft of “Pirates of the Caribbean,” was finished and submitted to Disney and other studios, directors and producers in the summer of 2000. They also created a demo reel with their original artwork and gave it to Disney employee Taylor on Aug. 9, 2000.

But when Alfred and Martinez met with the Disney employees to discuss “Red Hood,” they saw their screenplay of “Pirates of the Caribbean” on a coffee table. They were quickly ushered out of the office and when they returned, the screenplay was no longer there.

A week later, Disney wrote a check to them for the “Red Hood” screenplay, but the screenwriters were never invited back to work on the “Pirates of the Caribbean” screenplay.

Taylor later called and said Disney would pass on their screenplay and project, but did not mention that Disney was going forward with the “Pirates of the Caribbean” project, the lawsuit says.

Studios customarily return screenplays to writers immediately after they reject a project, the lawsuit says. Two years later, on Nov. 26, 2002, Disney returned the screenplay. Seven months after that, on July 9, 2003, the first “Pirates of the Caribbean” film, “The Curse of the Black Pearl,” was released.

When they saw the movie, Alfred and Martinez noticed numerous similarities between it and their original screenplay, the lawsuit says. The movie, like their screenplay, included a ghost-figure Davy Jones.

Each subsequent film in the franchise has followed the themes Alfred and Martinez created, the lawsuit claims.