When the trailer hit a couple of weeks back, the potential train wreck “MacGruber,” a full-length adaptation of Will Forte’s SNL character, surprised us very slightly by featuring a joke and a half that made us laugh. But according to Latino Review, there’s a chance that we’ll never find out if it’s a “Stuart Saves His Family” or a “Wayne’s World.”
In a detailed report filling in the backstory, the website points out that the laws over fair use and acceptable parody over copyrighted material applies in short bursts – you can do it a two minute sketch parodying one item, but a longer extended riff risks breaching copyright if it’s too close to the source. And now Lee Zlotoff, the creator of the original “MacGyver” series is apparently considering his legal options. He’s developing a feature based on the series at New Line, and presumably figures that the parody would damage the character’s value (and to be fair, he’d have a point, were it not for the fact that Patty & Selma’s favorite non-violent secret agent is a punchline anyway, even without Forte’s help). Either way, Zlotoff is seeking both to prevent the movie’s release, and to receive substantial financial compensation.
It’s reminiscent of the lawsuit that took place over “The Dukes of Hazzard” movie a few years back, where Warner Bros lawyers didn’t check that the original series was based on the 1975 movie “Moonrunners,” and had to pay out (as well as the “Watchmen” lawsuit last year, although no delay in release was ever granted in that case). No lawsuit yet seems to have been filed, so this may not happen at all – the film’s only a couple of months away from release (and, while it sounds like someone fucked up along the way here, the practice of waiting until immediately before the film’s release to encourage a settlement is a pretty reprehensible one). If Zlotoff’s concerns are legitimate, our guess is that Relativity Media are swiftly putting together a big pile of cash for him, before anything is filed, but maybe it will go further.
