Bad weather is a box office magnet. At least that’s what The Storm suggests. Wolfgang Petersen’s disaster film, starring George Clooney, still grossed over $328 million at the box office (via Box Office Mojo). But two families sued the film, because, in their opinion, he was distorting the facts. One of the trials was to last a full 14 years.
Disaster film starring George Clooney is being sued for 1,000 mistakes
Petersen’s film is based on the book The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger. Both the original and the adaptation tell the story of a group of fishermen led by Captain Tyne (Clooney) who head out to sea despite a storm warning. Soon he and his men have to fight for their very survival.
Warner Bros.
The crew from The Tempest
Captain Tyne and his associates like Bobby Shatford (Mark Wahlberg) actually existed. However, relatives of the people shown in the film were anything but enthusiastic about the portrayal: They sued the filmmakers for too large a discrepancy from the real characters, as reported by our colleagues from SensaCine.
Among other things, they criticized that Tyne is in the film behave inconsiderately and condescendingly towards his crew members, which never happened in reality. According to FandomWire, they also took offense at the carelessness of the film’s protagonists.
Warner Bros. producers then invoked freedom of speech. In one of the two court proceedings that followed, the positions were so hardened that the process dragged on for 14 years. The Supreme Court ultimately averted the lawsuit as the highest court in the USA.
Podcast: Why is German TV so boring?
70 times CSI per week and Germany’s next top model at prime time: German free TV is at its lowest point and still can’t be killed. We discuss why this is the case in the Moviepilot podcast:
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We explain why German television found itself in a downward spiral of cheap TV and a lack of ideas even before Netflix & Co. and why so many are still tuning in. While Andrea sets herself up as a TV hangman, TV lawyer Hendrik passionately defends television.
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