Research Guru / Moderator
Posted:
Mar 22, 2008, 3:09 PM
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Hit Aussie cartoon show a real steal, says writer
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Long-lived Australian children's cartoon show "Crocadoo" is based on stolen concepts, well-known TV and movie writer Leonard Lee charged Wednesday.
Lee, writer of the hit cartoon movie Blinky Bill (1992), says the Energee Entertainment series is based on ideas he helped create in 1993.
Crocadoo has been aired frequently by Australia's Nine Network.
Lee is taking civil action in Australia's Supreme Court against three sibling TV producers: the former Network Ten news director Carmel Travers and her brothers, Gerald and John Travers. He alleges that they failed to adhere to an agreement he signed with their production company in 1993 that he would become the show's sole writer if it was ever sold.
He also accuses the three of fraud. According to Lee, two pages of the agreement he signed were later replaced with an alternative version without his knowledge.
A forensic examination of the document showed there was "strong evidence" that the two pages were added, the court heard, as there were inconsistencies in the color of the paper, formatting and staple marks on those pages.
Representing himself in court, Lee said that the dishonored agreement "blew a hole" in his career. He said the events caused him to lose his family and file for bankruptcy, and left him "looking for park benches" to sleep on.
According to Lee, he signed an agreement and worked for about a month on a concept for the proposed kids' show. Only in September 1994, however, did he learn that the defendants had secured a "pre-sale" of 26 half-hour episodes of the Crocadoo series to the Nine Network with a $6.25 million ($5.64 million U.S.) production budget. The defendants also received nearly $4 million ($3.6 million U.S.) in funding from the Australian Film Finance Corporation, Lee said.
Lee charges that the contract Nine received wasn't the one he signed, because it said that if the group suceeded in selling the show, Lee would be "given the first option to undertake the work and provide a quote accordingly."
Marcus Pesman, the lawyer for the Traverse trio, asked for dismissal of the proceedings. He said that Lee's statement of claim made "unparticularized allegations of fraud" and was "generally embarrassing," and that the fraud claim was outside the statute of limitations.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Richard Macready reserved decision.
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"Oh boy." -- Allan Sherman
(This post was edited by eminovitz on Mar 22, 2008, 3:09 PM)
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