Man sues HANGOVER II claiming story was based on his script

Movie about 12 years agoby

The Hangover Part II has had a bunch of bad luck in the legal department. First they settled a suite with a a tattoo artist who claimed that the film had infringed a copyrighted tattoo originally created for boxer Mike Tyson. There is also a still-pending lawsuit from a stunt man who allegedly suffered brain injuries during filming. Now there is a man who is claiming that the story is based on a script he wrote from his personal experiecnes. THR is reporting that Michael Alan Rubin says the movie itself was stolen from a script he wrote that described his Asian adventures. Rubin is actually representing himself in this case, so I am not sure how much you can take the suit seriously.

Here is some information from Rubin's federal lawsuit, which he filed last week in Calfornia:

He married a Japanese woman named Tamayo in 2007 in Japan. Together, the couple honeymooned in Thailand and India where differences started arising over Rubin's financial condition. During the honeymoon trip, Tamayo refused to share a hotel room with the luckless plaintiff.

In India, Rubin says he met a Bollywood producer who gave him work as a leading actor on several films. At which point, Rubin wanted to turn his experience with Tamayo into a feature film, so he wrote a script entitled Mickey and Kirin and allegedly deposited a copy with the Writers Guild of America. He later heard from a Hollywood friend about Hangover II, the story of some Asian misadventures by Americans on the road to a wedding.

Here is what Rubin had to stay in a statement:

"The production of Hangover 2 is not a complete 'literary' or 'artistic' works of the HangoverDefendants as credited in Hangover 2," says the complaint. "In fact, the production of Hangover 2 was a result of infringement of the Plaintiff's treatment 'Mickey and Kirin' and exploitation of the private real life of Plaintiff in an insulting manner."

This suit is claiming copyright infringement, misappropriation of his publicity rights, and defamation. Rubin believes the filmmakers suggested the inference that he was under the influence of drugs when he ditched his girlfriend and proposed to a male-to-female transexual prostitute. Rubin provides no evidence that the producers of Hangover II even knew who he was.

I am willing to bet that this lawsuit gets settled fairly quickly. What are your thoughts?