I’ve pretty much blown my entire stock of racing metaphors, kids, but there’s one thing that’s for sure–there’s at least SOME CHANCE we may never see Death Race in theatres.

Now, you’d never exactly think of a remake as an original movie, now would you?  But as it turns out, the Death Race original may well be a lot more than derivative–it might be full-on stolen.

Check out the word from Bloody-Disgusting:

(Writer Adam) Stone claims in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court that the upcoming Universal thriller is based on a script he pitched to the film’s producer-director Paul W.S. Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt. He seeks a court order stopping the film’s release.  Stone claims that after the producers passed, Bolt made and kept a copy of his screenplay, titled “Joust,” to use as a “blueprint” for Anderson’s revision of the script for “Death Race.”  While “Death Race” is purported to be a remake of the 1975 film, “Death Race 2000,” Stone contends in his lawsuit that it actually is based on “Joust” and that there are at least 39 elements in the soon-to-be released film that mirror his screenplay.  Universal, which is a defendant in the lawsuit, declined comment on the lawsuit.

Wow.  Just, wow.  Someone’s actually suing because the Death Race remake is based on his script.  Isn’t it actually based on the DEATH RACE script, and thus this “Joust” script is actually ripping off the original Death Race?  Not that I haven’t seen this kind of thing before, but seeing it jump to full-on lawsuit is fairly rare, as most writers don’t have the cash to hire lawyers to go after big names like Universal.

Especially intriguing is that the guy waited until NOW to sue.  It’s not like we haven’t known this was coming for a long time now–trailers have been out for months–and he’s just now suing?  Smells like a con to me, but the kind of con that’ll bear watching, especially since it’s gone to full-bore lawsuit.

Calling around to the local theatres, meanwhile, suggests that this is a non-issue–as of 10 PM Wednesday night, the Celebration Cinema and Kalamazoo 10 near me were authorized to begin showing the film Friday morning.  Seriously, I called and asked.  They never even HEARD about this lawsuit.

So maybe we’ll get to see it after all, and maybe all this is just a show tactic designed to draw attention away from current juggernaut The Dark Knight. If I find out any more, look for me to bring it here.

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