If legendary science fiction author and noted creator rights activist Harlan Ellison has his way, the clock might stop ticking on Andrew Niccol’s new thriller In Time before it even hits cinemas. How so? He’s just sued production company New Regency, the director and several unidentified people claiming copyright infringement.
Specifically, Ellison charges that In Time lifts numerous elements of its basic plot from his award-winning 1965 short story Repent, Harlequin! Said The Ticktockman, which, like the film, finds a society where time is allotted as currency and where a rebel goes against a government authority known as the Timekeeper. **In Time **has Timekeepers as police officers, and there are more examples of similar ideas, including how a person's given lifespan can be reduced and how someone dies once the clock runs out.
Part of Ellison's beef is that he had recently optioned the Harlequin story to producers so that a film could be made from the story. But unlike some chancer who shows up claiming that producers ripped off their script once a film is successful, he can point to the story being a well-known title that has been easily accessible for decades. That doesn’t mean he’ll win his case, but it gives him a stronger argument.
And if there’s one thing the Hollywood community has learned from Ellison’s previous lawsuits, it’s that you don’t mess with Harlan. When he lodged a claim that James Cameron’s screenplay for The Terminator owed a heavy creative debt to Soldier, one of his episodes for anthology TV series The Outer Limits, he ended up with an acknowledgement credit on later prints of the film and an undisclosed payment. While Cameron didn’t agree with the settlement, he was obliged to allow it. And he’s just the highest profile target that the pugnacious author has gone up against…
Ellison is demanding that the film’s October 28 release in the US is halted and all copied destroyed. We doubt it’ll go that far, but for now the case is ongoing.