Movie News for
The Island
Release Date:
July 22, 2005
August 10, 2005
Illegal Island?
After suffering through enormously disappointing box office takes for The Island, now DreamWorks and Warner Bros. must face a lawsuit related to the film. The producers of the 1979 indie film Part: The Clonus Horror filed suit on Monday in federal court in New York City. Their allegation is that The Island was based on their film. Numerous reviewers in various magazines had noted the similarities between the two films. Premiere even mentioned that "the first hour of 'The Island' plays like a much more expensive albeit scene-for-scene remake."
Clonus was produced and directed by Mryl A. Schreibman and Robert S. Fiveson. It centers on a secret clone colony who are told that they will one day go to a utopia known as "America". In fact, they are being raised just in case their human counterparts need spare organs. One of the clones escapes, and is chased even as he tries to expose the facility. In The Island, the story is essentially the same, but substitute "The Island" for "America" and in this case we have two clones on the run as opposed to only one.
DreamWorks has said that The Island was created independently and infringes on no copyrights. However, the suit's additional allegation is that before Clonus was released in 1979, the producers screened it for Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was then an executive at Paramount but later became the co-founder of DreamWorks. The suit alleges 90 similarities between the two films.
Source: Variety
December 15, 2004
Bean goes to the Island
Sean Bean has joined the cast of The Island, playing the chief antagonist in the film opposite Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. Michael Bay is directing the film for DreamWorks.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
October 18, 2004
Hounsou and Buscemi are off to the Island
Djimon Hounsou and Steve Buscemi have signed to star alongside Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson in Michael Bay's The Island. Set to be distributed by DreamWorks, the story is based on a script by Caspian Tredwell-Owen and centers around a harvested being who becomes self-aware and attempts to escape the utopia where he is being held.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
October 8, 2004
Warner Bros. to co-finance Island
The Michael Bay-directed sci-fi action film The Island is set to be co-financed by DreamWorks and Warner Bros. DreamWorks had been looking for a financial partner on the project, which stars Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. The movie is set to begin shooting on October 25th for a scheduled Summer 2005 release.
The movie centers around a harvested being (McGregor) who suddenly becomes self-aware and attempts to escape the facility where he and others are being kept.
Source: Variety
August 27, 2004
Johansson goes to The Island
Scarlett Johansson is in final negotiations to join Ewan McGregor for the Michael Bay-directed film The Island. Shooting is slated to begin on October 25th from a screenplay by Caspian Tredwell-Owen. The film revolves around a harvested being (McGregor) who becomes self-aware rather suddenly. He attempts to escape the utopian facility where he and others like him are being kept. Johansson would play the only woman who McGregor's character can trust. Her character is also pregnant with her "sponsor's" child.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
August 9, 2004
McGregor is Island-bound
Ewan McGregor is in negotiations to star in the DreamWorks sci-fi flick The Island, with Michael Bay attached to direct. The plot centers around a "harvested being" who tries to escape the utopian facility where he is being kept. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci will rewrite the screenplay, which originated as a spec script from Caspian Tredwell-Owen. The studio is looking toward a fall production start.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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