A federal court judge dismissed the case after plaintiff Timothy Patrick McLanahan failed to submit Order to Show Cause.
- Jul 4, 2014
AceShowbiz - The $1 billion lawsuit against "Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol" was dismissed by a federal judge on Thursday, July 3. Plaintiff Timothy Patrick McLanahan was given time to "show cause why this case should not be dismissed" last month but he never did.
"IT IS ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that the above-entitled case is dismissed, without prejudice, for lack of prosecution and for failure to comply with the orders of the Court," Judge Beverly Reid O'Connell said in a one-page order. It also mentioned that McLanahan, who represented himself, never submitted a written response to Order to Show Cause before the June 25 due date.
McLanahan filed a complaint on January 13, claiming the 2011 fourth "MI" film was lifted off a script that he wrote 15 years ago. "Upon reviewing and watching the script and movie of Ghost Protocol, I immediately recognized that the scripts for this movie had been illegally written and produced from Head On's 1998 copyright," he stated in a 10-page-plus exhibits federal court filing in California.
McLanahan named Tom Cruise, J.J. Abrams, Paramount Pictures, CEO Brad Grey, Skydance Productions, David Ellison and others in his lawsuit. It did not take long for Cruise's lawyer Bert Fields to respond, "Tom Cruise has never stolen anything from anyone. This bizarre lawsuit against 13 people for combined copyright infringement and 'age discrimination' will be quickly dismissed by the Court."
