Joss Whedon’s highly praised screenplay for the satirical horror movie The Cabin in the Woods was ripped straight from the pages of a 2006 self-published novel, according to a new lawsuit claiming $10m in damages.

Writer Peter Gallagher filed a suit in the US district court in California against Whedon and film studio Lionsgate on 13 April, claiming ideas that originated in his book The Little White Trip: A Night in the Pines were pilfered wholesale for the hit slasher flick, The Wrap reports.

“Comparing the book to the film, the plots, stories, characters, sequence of events, themes, dialogue, and incidents portrayed in the two works are fictional and, in many respects, the elements in the two works are virtually identical,” claims the suit, which alleges copyright infringement.



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The claim continues: “Like the book, Cabin in the Woods tells the story of five friends (three guys and two girls) between the ages of 17 and 22 who take a trip to a remote cabin in the woods. The cabin’s previous inhabitants were murdered by the father of the family, who returns to terrorise the group of friends. In the end, it is revealed that the friends are being filmed and manipulated by persons behind the scenes, thus becoming inadvertent characters in a real-life horror show for the enjoyment of others.”

Gallagher reportedly printed 7,500 copies of his book and sold them on the street in Santa Monica, Venice Beach and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The key female characters in The Little White Trip: A Night in the Pines are named Julie and Dura, he says, while the film featured protagonists Jules and Dana.

The Cabin in the Woods, which was co-written by Whedon and Drew Goddard, with the latter also directing, was hailed as a self-reflexive take on the horror genre when it debuted in cinemas three years ago. The film, which starred Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchinson, Fran Kranz and Jesse Williams, played on Hollywood teen slasher-flick tropes (as well as those of other horror movies) and currently boasts a 91% “fresh” rating on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.