{"id":47169,"date":"2016-06-07T09:30:16","date_gmt":"2016-06-07T16:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=47169"},"modified":"2016-06-07T21:29:10","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T04:29:10","slug":"filmmakers-sue-gods-not-dead-producers-for-100-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2016\/06\/filmmakers-sue-gods-not-dead-producers-for-100-million.html","title":{"rendered":"Filmmakers sue God’s Not Dead<\/i> producers for $100 million"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"godsnotdead4-a\"<\/a><\/p>\n

God\u2019s Not Dead<\/a><\/i> was a big hit at the box office two years ago. Produced for only $2 million, it grossed over $60 million in North America alone \u2014 nearly double what any independent faith-based movie not<\/i> directed by Mel Gibson had done by then.<\/p>\n

And where there is money, lawsuits tend to follow.<\/p>\n

The Hollywood Reporter<\/a><\/i> says Pure Flix Entertainment and producer\/actor David A.R. White are being sued for at least $100 million in damages over allegations that they copied the storyline for God\u2019s Not Dead<\/i> from two other Christian filmmakers \u2014 and the names involved in this case will be familiar to longtime readers of this blog.<\/p>\n

First, the suit was filed by director Michael Landon Jr and screenwriter Kelly Kullberg, who says she had developed a story called Rise<\/i> based on her 2006 autobiography Finding God Beyond Harvard: The Quest for Veritas<\/i>. I have never met or interacted with either plaintiff, but there was a bit of a kerfuffle<\/a> nine years ago when Landon responded on a radio show to a critique that I had written of one of his films.<\/p>\n

Second, Kullberg names \u201cDr.\u201d Ted Baehr \u2014 whose Movieguide<\/i> publication represents pretty much everything<\/a> that is wrong<\/a> with Christian<\/a> film criticism<\/a> these days<\/a>, but set that aside for now \u2014 as one in a series of individuals who, allegedly and perhaps inadvertently, passed her story idea along to the folks at Pure Flix:<\/p>\n

Kullberg says it\u2019s clear how Pure Flix got her story, but the others involved might not have realized what they were doing. First, she described her story to Woody White, the president of a faith-based group at Harvard, hoping he might invest in the project. Then, according to the lawsuit, White was so excited about Rise<\/i> that he passed the information on to Ted Baehr, chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission. Next, Baehr discussed the plot with God\u2019s Not Dead<\/i> actor-producer White at a time when Pure Flix was working to develop a Christian apologetic project but struggling to conceive a story.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And how much of the movie\u2019s plot was allegedly passed along in this game of telephone? Quite a bit, according to these portions of the lawsuit:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe theme, set-up, opportunity, turning point, change of plans, complications, setback, final push, climax, and aftermath of the Rise<\/i> screenplay and the God\u2019s Not Dead<\/i> motion picture are the same,\u201d states the complaint. \u201cBy producing God\u2019s Not Dead<\/i>, defendants destroyed plaintiffs\u2019 prospects for producing a motion picture based on their Rise screenplay.\u201d . . .<\/p>\n

The film and Kullberg\u2019s story both depict \u201ca young college student who has to confront a popular and charming atheist professor in three debates, who struggles in the first debate, but succeeds in the next two after encouragement from supporting characters, including an unmarried local pastor, a rural married couple, the atheist professor\u2019s wife who is also the professor\u2019s former student (a lapsed Christian who questions her own beliefs and observances) and an international student ally, and manages to persuade many others, including the professor, that God does exist,\u201d according to the complaint.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The clincher, of course, would be if Kullberg\u2019s script had shown the atheist professor getting killed in a hit-and-run accident on his way to a Newsboys concert.<\/p>\n

The Hollywood Reporter<\/i> says God\u2019s Not Dead<\/i> has taken in \u201cmore than $140 million in international revenue\u201d, but Box Office Mojo<\/a> says the film grossed $64.7 million worldwide during its theatrical release \u2014 less than half of the amount stated by the Reporter<\/i>. I assume the rest of the money came from video sales, etc.<\/p>\n

Update:<\/b> Nate Fleming reminds me in the comments that White and Pure Flix were previously sued for $10 million by John Sullivan and Brad Stine<\/a>, who claimed that Pure Flix had ripped off their idea for a story called Proof<\/i>, which was described as a sort of faith-based Dead Poets Society<\/i>. So that\u2019s two<\/i> lawsuits over this film.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is at least the second lawsuit alleging that Pure Flix Entertainment stole the film’s story from someone else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[19,3731,2108,1998,3732,3728,912,401,3729],"class_list":["post-47169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-box-office","tag-brad-stine","tag-david-ar-white","tag-gods-not-dead","tag-john-sullivan","tag-kelly-kullberg","tag-michael-landon-jr","tag-ted-baehr","tag-woody-white"],"yoast_head":"\nFilmmakers sue God's Not Dead producers for $100 million<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is at least the second lawsuit alleging that Pure Flix Entertainment stole the film's story from someone else.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2016\/06\/filmmakers-sue-gods-not-dead-producers-for-100-million.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Filmmakers sue God's Not Dead producers for $100 million\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is at least the second lawsuit alleging that Pure Flix Entertainment stole the film's story from someone else.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2016\/06\/filmmakers-sue-gods-not-dead-producers-for-100-million.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-07T16:30:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-06-08T04:29:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/files\/2016\/06\/godsnotdead4-a.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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