Showtime and Lionsgate are facing a lawsuit alleging that the popular TV series ‘Yellowjackets’ copied the 2015 movie ‘Eden’. The lawsuit claims that the series is a “highly similar” work.
In a complaint filed Friday in California federal court and reviewed by Entertainment Weekly, plaintiff Eden Film Production LLC alleges that Yellowjackets is “highly similar” to ‘Eden’, violation its copyright and equitable action. The lawsuit names Showtime, Lionsgate, series creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, and two production companies as defendants.
The complaint cites similarities in “plots, setting, mood, pace, stories, characters, sequence of events, themes, and scene/dialogue,” allegedly demonstrating that ‘Eden’ and ‘Yellowjackets’, both thrillers about soccer teams that crash in the wilderness and resort to cannibalism to survive, “in most respects are identical.”
‘Eden’ (2015) was directed by Shyam Madiraju and stars Ethan Peck, Nate Parker, Jessica Lowndes, Diego Boneta, James Remar and Sung Kang. The film was also written by actor and filmmaker Parker, whose career was embroiled in controversy in 2016 when his 1999 rape case resurfaced in the news.
The film ‘Eden’ follows a men’s soccer team that crashes on a Malaysian island, confronting hazards such as land mines and sharks. In contrast, ‘Yellowjackets’, released six years later, centers on a high school girls’ soccer team that crash-lands in a Canadian forest.
