Showtime was sued Yellow Jacketswith the idea theft lawsuit alleging that the TV show has a similar plot to a 2015 survival film. The horror-mystery series became one of the premium network’s biggest hits, delighting critics and audiences with Survival of a football team after a plane crash in Canada, as well as how their adult lives after their escape were impacted. Yellow Jackets Season 3 is currently in production, with a story planned through Season 5 at the time of writing.
However, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that a lawsuit has been filed against Showtime and Lionsgate by Eden Film Production, who claims Yellow Jackets committed idea theft against the 2015 film Eden. Both media involve a football team crash-landing in the desert, resorting to cannibalism to survive. Both also involve a coach, a head coach’s son, and someone of the opposite sex who gets stuck in the desert with the team. The lawsuit alleges that the narrative elements found in both media are sufficient grounds for the legal claim:
In both works, the survivors, which include several players and the coach, among others, must fight for their lives against aggressive elements, starvation due to scarcity of resources, and the psychological cost of isolation in the form of growing darkness within themselves. . As they fight to survive, tensions rise, alliances form, dark secrets emerge, and moral boundaries are pushed to their limits – blurring the lines between good and evil.
The lawsuit also claims that both works feature a trainer character suffering from similar events, and that both shows are “methodical, focusing on the characters’ struggles and their evolving relationships.” Eden Film Production also claims that the theme of survival and exploitation of cults are more reasons to sue. The company asks for compensation and an injunction to stop Yellow Jackets of continuous production. To date, neither Showtime nor Lionsgate have responded to the lawsuit.
What Eden’s lawsuit against the Yellowjackets means for the program
Both stories are similar but contain striking differences
Eden tells the story of a men’s soccer team whose plane crashes on a tropical island in Malaysia, on the way back from a FIFA World Cup match. Although the team tries to survive together at first, they eventually split into factions, with the group slowly dwindling as time passes. While there are some similarities to the Showtime series, the timeline of Yellow Jackets It stands out because it also includes the exploitation of survivors decades after their rescue. Hints of supernatural elements also help differentiate the series from the film.
The idea of ​​plane crash survivors eating each other to survive is also nothing new, as it is something that happened in real life. In 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed in the Andes with a Uruguayan rugby football team as passengers. The survivors were forced to resort to cannibalism, eating those who succumbed to the accident and the cold. The true story was adapted into Snow Societya 2024 Netflix film, and was previously explored in 1976 Survive! and 1993 Alive. This weakens the process, since both Eden and Yellow Jackets could have been inspired by this event.
Our take on the Eden lawsuit against the yellowjackets
Probably doesn’t have enough ground to stand on
Despite very similar initial premises Eden and Yellow JacketsThe Showtime series expands on its initial premise to explore survivor guilt, trauma, and potentially supernatural mysteries. Because both media were likely drawn from real-world events or similar works of fiction that came before them, It’s doubtful that the TV show stole ideas from the 2015 film. Although their initial premises are similar, profound differences make it unlikely that the process has any real basis to stand on.
Source: THR