Plaintiff Walter L. Lowe, Jr., author of “The Devil and Doodazzle Dakins,” a fictional story that was published in Playboy magazine in April 1984, is suing film studio Warner Bros. and a host of other defendants for making, marketing, and selling the animated film Space Jam. Last Thursday’s Eastern District of Texas complaint names Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Warner Media LLC, WB Studio Enterprises Inc., Warner Bros. Animation, Home Box Office Inc., Redbox Automated Retail LLC, Amazon.com Inc., Walmart Inc., and Best Buy Co. Inc. as defendants.
Reportedly, Lowe’s story depicts a cosmic battle of good versus evil, wherein a game of “astral basketball” is used to determine the fate of mankind. After the story’s publication in Playboy, Lowe was approached by two Hollywood screenwriters.
For $3,000 and a period of six months per option, the plaintiff twice optioned his movie rights to Tim Harris and Herschel Weingrod. However, the filing claims, the option periods lapsed without action, and Lowe never heard from Harris and Weingrod again.
In 1996, Warner Bros. released Space Jam, featuring NBA star Michael Jordan and various Looney Toons characters. The complaint makes clear that the protagonist in Lowe’s story was not based on Michael Jordan because it was published two months before the shooting guard was drafted by the Chicago Bulls.
The filing explains that numerous elements of the plaintiff’s story appear in the motion picture Space Jam, starting with the story’s basic premise. The complaint points to several other similarities in characters, plot, and symbology. These include the protagonist, an African-American basketball superstar who dominates the league, elements of the works’ final scenes, and a luminous basketball through which the astral players absorb the powers of earthly professional basketball players.
According to Lowe, Harris and Weingrod knowingly and willfully copied and misappropriated his story on behalf of Warner Bros. The film, he argues, is an unauthorized derivative of his original work. The other defendants, streaming service Home Box Office, Redbox, Amazon.com Inc. and retail defendants Walmart and Best Buy infringe by enabling their customers to watch Space Jam as part of a subscription fee, or on a rental or purchase basis, Lowe claims.
The complaint states one count of federal copyright infringement and seeks an adjudication of infringement, injunctive relief, damages, including those enhanced damages associated with willful infringement, and his attorneys’ fees and costs. The plaintiff is represented by Chen Leftwich LLP.