Marshall and the Movies

Everyone needs a scapegoat; 20th Century Fox just found theirs to the tune of $15 million.

According to a post on Cinematical, the studio is suing Patricia McIlvane for this ludicrous sum because she posted scripts on her website, which wouldn’t be terrible if they weren’t for movies that hadn’t been released yet.  Here’s more on her plight:

“Two strangers knocked on her door and informed her, in front of her children, 20th Century Fox was suing her for 15 million dollars. Two hours later, after grilling her with questions for two solid hours, they left her stunned and crying in her living room staring at a business card that stated they were “private investigators.”

This was the first contact PJ had from 20th Century Fox regarding a Media Fire online script library she created – and was the day 20th Century Fox filed a law suit against PJ in federal court for fifteen million dollars.”

In order to pay for her screenwriting career, McIlvane sells flowers over the phone as a day job.  So to me, this seems like the wrong example to make.  Considering that the script was already on a bigger website, Fox looks like they are on the bully pulpit.  Plus, why spend the money on legal counsel for a movie script when you have people out there pirating ENTIRE MOVIES?  Scripts get around; they get posted on message boards mainly to get hype going.  No one who doesn’t want to see the movie is going to spend two to three hours reading it.

Plus, Fox (at least Searchlight) is the same studio that posts screenplays on their awards site during the Oscar season.  That’s how I own a copy of “Crazy Heart,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “(500) Days of Summer,” and Best Adapted Screenplay winner “Slumdog Millionaire.”  They are a great sharing tool for people incredibly passionate about film, and prosecuting these people over those who are seeking to bring down the movie industry seems fundamentally off-base.