Canuck Claims Knocked Up a Rip Off
June 8, 2007 Comments
Canadian author Rebecca Eckler is suing Judd Apatow, claiming Knocked Up is a ripoff of her novel of the same title. Astute iwatchstuff.com reader Kat actually pointed the similarities between the two stories last weekend.
She claims that while pitching her book to Hollywood producers, she learned of Apatow's project and the script, which she says had on it a picture of a martini glass with a pacifier around the stem -- the same as the cover of her book.
Jeez, you'd think if they were going to rip it off, they'd at least change the name. For his part, Apatow says:
"Anyone who reads the book and sees the movie will instantly know that they are two very different stories about a common experience," said the statement, posted on TMZ.com.
I haven't read the book, but it seems like the reason the movie was good was its biting sense of humor, which didn't rely all that heavily on the story. Plus, career-girl-gets-pregnant-by-accident just ain't that original of an idea. Still, if you are going to use an author's premise, you should at least buy the rights first. Even the Filipino boy I keep in my basement knows that.