According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney is now facing a big lawsuit from author Gary L. Goldman, who has accused the studio of stealing his idea to make Zootopia. Goldman wrote Total Recall and Next, and he says he pitched Disney on an idea that was supposedly very similar to Zootopia in both 2000 and 2009. The studio passed both times, but the lawsuit says that Disney âcopied Goldmanâs themes, settings, plot, character, and dialogueâ for its movie, with some of the alleged rip-offs being âvirtually verbatimâ to Goldmanâs original work.
The THR story doesnât offer a lot of specific details about Goldmanâs supposedly stolen pitch, but apparently it wouldâve included a âlive-action component called Looneyâ and a separate animated thing called Zootopia that wouldâve involved anthropomorphized animals in some way. The lawsuit even includes concept art that supposedly illustrates how blatant Disneyâs rip-off is:
Disney has already responded to the lawsuit, dismissing it as âpatently falseâ and vowing to âvigorously defend against it in court.â
