Caped crusader is really a ‘copybat’
‘The Batman’ ‘pilfered’ my DC story: suit
Holy plagiarism, Batman! Hollywood’s latest swing at “The Batman,” is little more than a literary heist by Warner Brothers, a comic book illustrator and writer claims in a new lawsuit.
Christopher
Wozniak argues the plot of the smash-hit 2022 film — starring
Robert Pattinson as Gotham’s brooding caped crusader — is a near carbon copy of a 1990 Batman story he wrote, first called “The Ultimate Riddle” and later retitled “The Blind Man’s Hat.”
The allegedly poached plot follows a murderous Riddler who terrorizes a “broken” Gotham City rife with police corruption and controlled by a criminal banking cartel, the suit claims.
Wozniak claims entire scenes from the three-hour superhero reboot, which featured Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman and Paul Dano as the Riddler, were lifted from the story.
One allegedly swiped scene shows Batman butler Alfred firebombed by the arch villain, and the caped crusader learning of the explosion over the phone — after it’s too late.
“This scene is copied from an original expression in the Copyrighted Work,” the Manhattan federal court suit states.
Another lifted line is the “big reveal” of the Riddler showing he knows Bruce Wayne is the Batman through a series of riddles left by the madman that combine into a cypher, according to the lawsuit.
The Warner Bros. film was directed by Matt Reeves, who wrote the screenplay with Peter Craig, and reportedly cost $200 million to produce. It grossed over $770 million, making it one of the highest-grossing movies of the year.
Wozniak, whose work has been published by DC and Marvel, sent the sadistic story to DC at least three times since he wrote it, the suit states. In 2008, he passed it along to film producer Michael Uslan after meeting him at New York Comic Con earlier that year, according to the suit.
“There are so many original expressions from my client’s story found in the defendant’s movie that we believe this is [a] clear case of copyright infringement. The similarities are just too uncanny to be accidental,” Wozniak’s attorney, R. Terry Parker, said in a statement.
Wozniak is seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages.
A rep for Warner Bros. did not respond to a request for comment.
“The Batman” has earned largely positive reviews. The Post’s Johnny Oleksinski called it a bleak reminder of the Big Apple’s recent crime wave.