Tonight on TV: The film that earned Luc Besson a record fine for plagiarism

Two young Irish directors, James Mather and Stephen St. Ledger, have been noticed by EuropaCorp, Luc Besson’s company, for a sci-fi short film posted online called Prey Alone. He then suggested they create their first feature. It’s Lock Out, which tells the story of Agent Snow (Guy Pearce) on a mission sent by the President of the United States to rescue his daughter, who has been held hostage by dangerous criminals in a space prison.

Shortly after its release in 2012, American director John Carpenter sued EuropaCorp, claiming that Lockout There is a plagiarism of his film New York 1997. Kurt Russell there played a snake, a dangerous criminal, responsible, in exchange for a pardon, to save the victim of an attack on Manhattan, the president of the United States, which has become a huge ghetto. prison.

In 2015, the Paris Tribunal ordered Luc Besson to pay €80,000 to the rights holders (StudioCanal, John Carpenter and his co-screenwriter Nick Castle) for “characterized infringement”. After that, the filmmaker appealed this decision. But a year later, the Paris Court of Appeal upheld the verdict and ultimately ordered the beneficiaries to pay 465,000 euros.

lock up By James Mather and Stephen St. Ledger with Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Vincent Regan…

from the age of 12

Tonight on L’ÉQUIPE at 9.05pm.