Wachowskis = Thieves?

I posted this in another thread, but was curious if anyone else ever read this? Pretty damning evidence, if you ask me. May even change the way you feel about the franchise.

"Mother of the Matrix" Victorious
By Martha Carter

Monday, October 4th 2004 ended a six-year dispute involving
Sophia Stewart, the Wachowski Brothers, Joel Silver and Warner
Brothers. Stewart's allegations, involving copyright infringement
and racketeering, were received and acknowledged by the
Central District of California, Judge Margaret Morrow residing.

Stewart, a New Yorker who has resided in Salt Lake City for the
past five years, will recover damages from the films, The Matrix I,
II and III, as well as The Terminator and its sequels. She will
soon receive one of the biggest payoffs in the history of
Hollywood, as the gross receipts of both films and their sequels
total over 2.5 billion dollars.

Stewart filed her case in 1999, after viewing the Matrix, which she
felt had been based on her manuscript, "The Third Eye,"
copyrighted in 1981. In the mid-eighties Stewart had submitted
her manuscript to an ad placed by the Wachowski Brothers,
requesting new sci-fi works.

According to court documentation, an FBI investigation
discovered that more than thirty minutes had been edited from
the original film, in attempt to avoid penalties for copyright
infringement. The investigation also stated that "credible
witnesses employed at Warner Brothers came forward, claiming
that the executives and lawyers had full knowledge that the work
in question did not belong to the Wachowski Brothers." These
witnesses claimed to have seen Stewart's original work and that
it had been "often used during preparation of the motion
pictures." The defendants tried, on several occasions, to have
Stewart's case dismissed, without success.

Stewart has confronted skepticism on all sides, much of which
comes from Matrix fans, who are strangely loyal to the
Wachowski Brothers. One on-line forum, entitled Matrix
Explained has an entire section devoted to Stewart.
Some who have researched her history and writings are open to
her story. Others are suspicious and mocking. "It doesn't bother
me," said Stewart in a phone interview last week, "I always knew
what was true."

Some fans, are unaware of the case or they question its
legitimacy, due to the fact that it has received little to no media
coverage. Though the case was not made public until October of
2003, Stewart has her own explanation, as quoted at
daghettotymz.com:

"The reason you have not seen any of this in the media is
because Warner Brothers parent company is AOL-Time
Warner... this GIANT owns 95 percent of the media... let me give
you a clue as to what they own in the media business... New
York Times papers/magazines, LA Times papers/magazines,
People Magazine, CNN news, Extra, Celebrity Justice,
Entertainment Tonight, HBO, New Line Cinema, Dreamworks,
Newsweek, Village Roadshow... many, many
more!... They are not going to report on themselves. They have
been surpressing my case for years..."

Fans who have taken Stewart's allegations seriously, have found
eerie mythological parallels, which seem significant in a case
that revolves around the highly metaphorical and symbolic Matrix
series. Sophia, the greek goddess of wisdom has been
referenced many times in speculation about Stewart. In one
book about the Goddess Sophia, it reads, "The black goddess
is the mistress of web creation spun in her divine matrix."

Although there have been outside implications as to racial
injustice (Stewart is African American), she does not feel that
this is the case. "This is all about the Benjamins," said Stewart.
"It's not about money with me. It's about justice."

Stewart's future plans involve a record label, entitled Popsilk
Records, and a motion picture production company, All Eyez On
Me, in reference to God. "I wrote The Third Eye to wake people
up, to remind them why God put them here.
There's more to life than money," said Stewart. "My whole
message to the world is about God and good and about choice,
about spirituality prevailing over 'technocracy'."

If Stewart represents spirituality, then she truly has prevailed
over the "technocracy" represented in both the Terminator and
the Matrix, and now, ironically, by their supposed creators.

Stewart is currently having discussions with CBS about a
possible exclusive story and has several media engagements in
the near future to nationally publicize her victory.

Don't really care,
I like the matrix, DOn't care who wrote it,
If Steward wrote it, then she should get money, simple as that,
But if she's jsut trying to get money off its sucess, she should rot in hell..

The Wachowski's took a LOT of their inspiration for the Matrix from Ghost in the Shell.

Frankly, this won't make me like the Matrix any less, it'll still remain among my top favorite movies.

Oh, her case is pretty legit. There was just always something suspicious about those two, having scene pictures of them. They look like a couple of Chicago Bears fans, circa 1989.

Doesn't really bother me, either. Sad that they abused the ladies material like that, but I doubt she would have presented it the way they did, which is what hooked me.

The word "Thieves" maybe a little harsh there Cinema. There is a thread regarding Ms. Stewart claims.

http://www.killermovies.com/forums/f42/t315546.html

As many of you know I'm a huge QT fan and I know how it feels when someone accuses them of plagarism. But until all the facts have been gather and a court of law has a rule decision......nothing can be certain. Documents can be falsified and normally this only happens when something makes lots of money. In this case the Matrix is the target. Hopefully everything can be resolved before things do get out of hand.

The fact She is also suing for "the Terminator" raises some questions about her cedibility as well.

She won over a billion dollars. Does that not say something?

The information I have is that she hasn't won a thing yet- all that has happened is that the case is going ahead. That article is inaccurate (hardly bloody surprising when the only site reporting it is a University student rag).

So until anything is proven, it is early to judge.

Originally posted by OB1-adobe
The fact She is also suing for "the Terminator" raises some questions about her cedibility as well.

Well, you can see the case for both Terminator and the Matrix. Is basically the same premise. Machines take over the world. Humanity is oppress by the machines etc...etc..

But THAT premise existed in sci-fi long before any of her work as well, so that doesn't exactly track.

I'm guessing that whoever heard her case assumed that her literary work served as the frame for the movies. Has anyone actually read into the book, being able to pull direct correlations with characters?

No, though from what I hear it has a lot of the same self-questioning ethos as The Matrix, though from a Biblical point of view. I really can't get the Terminator link.

Terminator backstory - Machines over run humanity and take over the world.

Matrix backstory- Machines over run humanity and take over the world.

Obviously there is a similarity in these backstories, but it's pretty well known that most everything in the matrix was done already before, all the film did was combine numerous aspects of other films with some shallow philisophical references thrown into the mix (references that arent' all that uniqe themselves, pretty much the same notions that have been hidden in numerous other films for decades. The Matrix just made them more obvious then other films have.)

Plus the idea of machiens taking over the world was around before the Terminator, so that's kinda moot.

First of all, I'm not saying she is right or not but there are three things I wanna say about that story:

1) She says is not about the money...but she wants to receive tons of money...

2) Terminator came out in 1984, then she only filed the lawsuit after the original Matrix came out in 1999... (very strange..)

3) U Know what? I really don't care...! The Matrix was one of the most visionary and mind blowing trilogies..nothing will change that.

REGARDLESS OF WHAT ANY OF YOU THINK,SHE WAS ROBBED AND NOW SHE'S GETTING PAID.DEAL WITH IT.

In this day and age, you can connect anything with something else. The Matrix also has similarities to Ghost in the Shell and Lain.

Has anyone read this story? I'd like to know really how much this relates to The Matrix and The Terminator.

Whatever, I enjoyed the movies and that's all that matters.

Originally posted by lilith66
REGARDLESS OF WHAT ANY OF YOU THINK,SHE WAS ROBBED AND NOW SHE'S GETTING PAID.DEAL WITH IT.

No she hasn't! Like I said, this was incorrect info. No payment has been made, she has not won anything.

And BF... kinda what myself and WD said already, that! The Terminator link cannot be built on that principle. Meanwhile, I still find your analysis of the Matrix the most incorrect thing I have ever seen you do here...

Ushgarak you cannot deny the similarities between the two films. The Matrix has Neo and the Terminator has John Connor. What's the similarities? Both are the chosen ones to stop the machines from total domination. Both are frequently hunted by machines that want to kill them. If they die then humanity is doom. Heck, even the villains have similar features. Look at Agent Smith and the T-1000 they both have the same objective....to destroy the one being that is threating their power. Both Agent Smith and the T-1000 are stiffed wooden characters with no expressions. My point is that I don't want to sound like the Matrix rip-off stuff from the terminator......but there is defenetly certain mirror images in both storylines.

Gah... I wasn't doubting the similarities between the two films! Why would you think that?

I am doubting that that is the grounds for her action, because the grounds on which her book seems to have inspired the Matrix are on the philosophical grounds which do not exist in the Terminator, and as I said before, simply the fact that both plots involve futures where robots control the Earth is not grounds for plagiarism!

So as of yet, I cannot see where her case fits with the Terminator. Her work does not appear to be similar from all I have seen of it.

And doubly so because that issue has already been settled as to respect to one Harlan Ellison, so unless she can prove her work pre-dates his- which she cannot- she has no case.

So basically the Terminator part of the suit is frivilous; the Matrix part is unresolved and may well be nonsense or not be; we shall see.

Currently she doesn't even have a case submitted ready to go as her original was rejected. If she corrects her errors and submits again, we can expect to see this become a major legal battle.

Anyone claiming victory for her, though, has spoken way too soon.

This thing is silly...

For one thing, the whole 'man vs. machines' thing is nothing new...neither the Matrix nor Terminator invented that idea. And someone mentioned similarities with Ghost in the Shell and Lain...well, a lot of the inspiration for the Matrix DID come from GITS, and anyone who has seen both movies will see this to be very obvious. I don't know about the Serial Experiments Lain similarities though as I haven't seen Lain.

And basically anything else I wanted to say TOH already covered.