NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 16: Actor James Franco attends the after party for the Broadway opening night for "Of Mice and Men" at The Plaza Hotel on April 16, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images) Actor James Franco attends the opening night after party for Broadway's "Of Mice And Men." (credit: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images Entertainment)

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — James Franco is being sued for alleged copyright infringement, according to a lawsuit filed by a British screenwriter.

Writer Cyril Humphris alleges Franco used part of a Charles Bukowski semi-autobiographical novel without properly securing the rights to the material.

Humphris filed the complaint in federal court. He says he owns the rights to the late writer’s “Ham on Rye,” which he alleges Franco adapted for “Bukowski.”

A message left with Franco’s production company, Rabbit Bandini Productions, which is also named as a defendant, was not immediately returned.

Humphris contends in his court papers that he has owned the exclusive motion-picture rights to the book for the past 20 years, “pursuant to a valid written assignment.”

The lawsuit alleges that in 2009, Franco and Humphris entered into an agreement in which the actor would have “certain rights” to develop a film based on the novel. Humphris said that the agreement was terminated the following year.

Franco “has seen and, on information and belief, read a draft screenplay that Humphris wrote based on the novel,” according to the complaint.

“Bukowski” focuses on the novelist-poet’s formative years growing up in an abusive household in working-class Los Angeles in the 1940s, the lawsuit says.

“The film incorporates entire scenes, including substantially their dialogue, from the novel,” the suit alleges. “Mr. Humphris has not authorized Mr. Franco, or anyone else, to make the film. In fact, after learning of Mr. Franco’s project, Mr. Humphris emailed him to express his concern and to ask for a copy of the shooting script for the film.”

The suit alleges that Franco responded once, saying he was working on “a little project” based on “one of Bukowski’s biographies” with some friends from New York University, but contact between Humphris and the actor stopped at that point.

The Franco-directed “Bukowski,” which stars Josh Peck and Shannen Doherty, is expected to be released later this year.

The suit seeks a permanent injunction halting release of the film, unspecified compensatory damages or an out-of-court settlement of $150,000 “for defendant’s willful infringement of plaintiff’s motion-picture rights to the novel.”

Bukowski died in 1994 at age 73 after publishing more than 60 books.

“Barfly,” a semi-autobiographical 1987 film written by Bukowski, starred Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway.