Screenwriter Sues Sylvester Stallone For Copyright Infringement Over Expendables Script

Posted on October 28, 2011

Connecticut screenwriter Marcus Webb is suing Sylvester Stallone, co-author David Callaham, Millennium Films, Nu Image Films unit and Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation for copyright infringement in connection with the screenplay for The Expendables. The action film grossed nearly $300 million worldwide and starred Jason Stratham, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Jet Li and Arnold Schwarzenegger (in a cameo).

The Wall Street Journal reports that Webb claims that he wrote a screenplay called The Cordoba Caper which is "strikingly similar and in some places identical" to the script for The Expendables in which a group of mercenaries take a job to overthrow an evil Latin American dictator.

Expendables 2 is set for release in August, 2012, but this lawsuit could put a crimp in those plans.