Truman Show Counter-Claims

Truman Show screenwriter Andrew Niccol has denied claims by playwright Mark Dunn that he ripped off his play when writing the movie. Dunn filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit claiming that the hit film directly copied his 1992 play, Frank's Life, listing 108 similarities between the two. But now Niccol has insisted he began writing the script for the movie at least a year before the play was first staged. The film has so far taken more than $85 million at the box office; Dunn's lawsuit asks for more than $300 million for copyright infringement, breach of contract, unlawful interference, breach of confidence, and false designation of origin. In response to the screenwriter's claims, Dunn, said in an interview with Variety, "If all they had was a concept prior to [my play], then I'm not worried. All the literary elements of the [two works] are the same and the similarities go far beyond an idea."