There was at least one claimed case resulting in a lawsuit being brought against Stone. The link also mentions a few other possibly connected crimes at the bottom.
A Clockwork Orange had a number of copycat crimes attrituted to it.
One of the odd things about the Sarah Edmonson-Benjamen Darrus copycat killings is that it publically pitted novelist John Grisham against Oliver Stone. Grisham was friends with a businessman named Bill Savage that the duo murdered and blamed Stone for his glamorization of murder in the movie.
http://www.fradical.com/ftc_adds_ammo_to_lawsuits_for_deaths.htm
Stone’s response was something along the lines of that he sympathized with his loss, but it’s not as if Mr. Grisham was himself the author of a series of delightful children’s novels. Here’s the text of the plaintiff’s petition in the lawsuit:
http://www.courttv.com/archive/legaldocs/misc/killers.html
Incidentally, I remember at the time seeing a still from the security camera of Sarah Edmonton leveling the gun off at Byers across the counter seconds before she shot her, and man, the look on her face was spooky. She had this wide-eyed creepy smile that would give a Manson family member the heebie-jeebies.
It’s been explained. However, I’ll summarize my reason for liking this movie thusly:
-If you liked The Perfect Storm, does that mean you like it when people die in hurricanes?
-If you liked Jurassic Park, does that mean you like it when dinosaurs get cloned and kill people?
-If you liked any of the Charlie Brown movies, does that mean you like it when bad things happen to good people?
Of course not.
Just for the record. Tarantino had no knowledge of Stone’s script. It was not because of any content in the final film that Tarantino wanted nothing to do with the film.
I was a friend of the producer who made this film, and in fact this producer was first given a copy of the script to look at while at my apartment at the time (not by Tarantino, just someone who knew him and had a copy of the script).
For those interested in some admittidly boring details that have nothing to do with the final version of the film, read on. This was before Tarantino had acheived any notariety. He had not made any movies yet. He had an office job with a guy who was a friend of one of my roommates (this was after Tarantino’s video store days), and this guy who worked with him was trying to get his NBK script made into a movie. Tarantino agreed to give this guy the rights to make the film, with the proviso that he shoot part of it by a certain date. There is a part of the script that is designed to be shot on video (I think the reporter’s TV show footage, but I don’t remember exactly) that they believed could be shot really cheaply using video equipment. These guys had no money (an office job as some kind of gopher in a small production company, I believe) so could not even do that without somehow raising money for the film.
This friend of Tarantino’s was going around trying to raise money for the film, but with no success, and he was running out of time. He had to get that part of the film shot by a certain date to keep the rights to the film (which he had paid nothing for). My friend, the aspiring producer (he had made his student film into a full length feature and managed to produce one movie you’ve probably never heard of by very “creative” rights aquisition) saw an opportunity to get the film done.
My producer friend knew that Tarantino was in the process of getting Reservoir Dogs started, and surmised that Tarantino’s name would become much bigger, He also thought it was a great script and would make a great movie.
So he entered into an agreement (a signed contract) with the guy who held the rights to the film, to raise the money and produce the film, letting the other guy direct. Directing was of vital importance to this guy, and never would have signed the contract without that provision. My friend the producer, however, was a bit smarter, and while agreeing in principle to letting him direct, insisted on including a clause paying the guy $10,000 and giving an executive producer’s credit if that didn’t happen. A combination of assuring him he would direct but they could never raise that money if that clause wasn’t in there and the guys need to get part of the film shot before the deadline pressured him into signing.
Meanwhile, as time went on, Tarantino did get more popular. At some point in this process I remember going along with my producer friend to a restaurant called Johnny’s in LA (corner of Wilshire and Fairfax) wher he had to meet with Tarantino for something, and they were shooting the diner scene. Actually, maybe he was just meeting with the Tarantino friend guy, because he (and my roommate and a couple of other friends) were extras in the scene a booth over from Tim Roth and the cop he’s talking to). I’m just pointing this out to clarify (in my head, at least) this was going on before Reservoir Dogs had been finished, and at this point at least Tarantino had no problem with my producer friend.
Skipping some drama along the way, suffice it to say that Tarantino’s star did rise very quickly, and soon became a big name. His name as writer now started attracting much greater interest from producers and studios and directors. I don’t remember the numbers, but the level of the budget they had originally envisioned now rose to much bigger amounts, because studios and producers with money started taking an interest in Tarantino projects. The problem with the big money interest, however, was that they were not going to invest a large sum of money for a movie directed by a complete unknown, first time director.
Before the director was “fired,” though, my producer friend wanted to shore up the film’s rights with Tarantino. He had an agreement with Tarantino’s friend, but the guy had no contract with Tarantino. Tarantino ended up agreeing to sell the rights outright for (I believe) $10,000. This money came out of the producer’s pockets, not from the would-be director.
So fimally they decided they needed to remove the guy as director, so they could persue the big money. I don’t remember exactly if Oliver Stone had expressed an interest yet, but certainly they needed the guy to be gone as director before Oliver Stone would agree to make the film. To be fair to their point of view, they also had reasons that could be demonstrated to show the guy was not competent which they were prepared to use in court, but the reality is propbably just the money (and with it, a major motion picture and the acclaim and career boost that comes with it).
The director guy was devestated… he stormed out on being told he was no longer directing, never to return, only to file a law suit. Which is a shame, because if he had just bitten his lip a little he could have stayed working on the movie in some capacity, had a possible relationship with Oliver Stone and certainly the producers, and would probably advanced his career and possibly gotten to direct another movie in the future. Instead he got his credit, got paid off by Oliver Stone to end the law suit, and even though he made a bunch of cash (I’m thinking 50 or 75 thousand, I don’t remember) he has never since been involved in the movie industry.
Tarantino, meanwhile, does not have clean hands in this deal either. When he sold the rights for $10,000 he could have stuck up for his friend, etc., but he didn’t. Instead he tried to get the film reverted back to himself so he could direct it, and failing that agreed to get paid $10,000 rather than try to take them to court to get his film back.
As a result of all the behind-the-scenes manipulations, Tarantino has let’s say a certain hatred for the producer guy (as evidenced a few years later when he saw the guy in a restaurant and started punching him out!) and wanted to have nothing to do with this movie. I don’t know if he has any animosity towards Oliver Stone or not, but I’m sure he was never consulted on the script revisions Oliver Stone made, and his public proclamations to have nothing to do with the movie were not based on the actual content of the film.
If anyone is really interested in more details about the behind-the-scenes stuff in the making of this film, read Killer Instinct, a book told from the producer’s point of view.
Thank you for the Straight Dope, richardb! That’s why I love this place.
It’s a miracle that any movies ever get made!