Two scriptwriters have launched legal action against Quentin Tarantino, alleging that his 2012 film Django Unchained infringes the copyright of their screenplay Freedom, according to The Wrap. In the suit, Tarantino – along with the Weinstein Company and Columbia Pictures, which produced and distributed the film – Oscar Colvin Jr and Torrance J Colvin call Tarantino “an admitted thief”, quoting him as saying “I steal from every single movie ever made.”

They say they submitted their screenplay to the William Morris Agency, which discussed Tarantino as a possible collaborator, and that the overlap of ideas and characters from their script goes beyond coincidence.

Tarantino’s film, in which Jamie Foxx stars as the escaped slave of the title, pays homage to many classic movies, including Sergio Corbucci’s Django, which the film-maker credited as a source. But the Colvins say the final film bears “far more similarities” to Freedom.

Christoph Waltz and Jamie Foxx in Django Unchained. Photograph: Allstar/Weinstein/Sportsphoto

The writers’ suit says: “Before Django Freeman, there was an escaped slave named Jackson Freeman who desired to purchase his family’s freedom from a malevolent plantation owner. Before Dr Schultz, there was Samson, another white man, who would assist Mr Freeman in his efforts to rescue his loved one(s) from slavery.”

The Colvins continue that they “provided the heart, bones and muscles to develop the unique idea that eventually would be transformed into Django Unchained … Tarantino took the plotlines and main story of Freedom and Tarantino-ised them.”

The papers were filed in a federal court in Washington DC and request compensatory damages “in an amount in excess of hundreds of millions of dollars to be proven at trial”.