By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
'Guilty' is Charged: Author Targets Yari and Lumet in Copyright Case
Trouble seems to love Bob Yari, the real estate mogul-turned-jilted producer who notoriously filed suit over his credit (or lack thereof) on the Oscar-winner Crash. A new ensnarement has him playing defendant, however, facing allegations that his latest film, Find Me Guilty, represents a “blatant and wholesale theft” of a Newark journalist’s 1992 book.
According to a press release, former Star Ledger reporter Robert Rudolph claims the film is an “unauthorized adaptation” of his Lucchese trial chronicle, The Boys From New Jersey: How the Mob Beat the Feds. But while Rudolph’s protests ironically mirror a Yari-esque level of outrage, this guy absolutely has the market cornered on shrill, strident bitchiness:
Named in the suit, which alleges copyright infringement, misappropriation and unjust enrichment, are the film’s noted Executive Producer, Robert Yari, its legendary Director, Sidney Lumet, screenwriters Robert McCrea and T.J. Mancini, and others. Rudolph charges the defendants with “blatant and wholesale theft” of a book that he “extensively researched, independently wrote, properly copyrighted and published to widespread acclaim.” The book remains in print some fourteen years after its original publication. The film opened on March 17th to excellent reviews but weak box office sales.
So let’s see: Not only does Rudolph reduce the “noted” Bob Yari and the “legendary” Sidney Lumet to garden-variety rip-off artists (much of Guilty‘s script was, in fact, based on court transcripts), but he also impugns their work’s value and staying power like a middle-aged wife taking a drunken swing at her husband. And then there is the crystalline logic alleging “unjust enrichment” from a film that has “weak box office sales.” But whatever–like Yari’s suit against Cathy Schulman and Paul Haggis, it is the prinicple that matters here.
And as perversions of justice go, any film reviewed well enough to get Vin Diesel the green light for a big-budget, three-picture, dead- on-arrival language elephant ride deserves some kind of cosmic retaliation. Do what you have to do, Rudolph.
