Harvard scholar claims THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW was his idea first

Lawsuit filed against TOMORROW's director, Roland Emmerich

By Patrick Sauriol     June 15, 2004
Source: Variety

A Harvard professor has filed a lawsuit against THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW director Roland Emmerich, accusing the helmer of stealing the idea for his picture from a novel written by the teacher.

The professor, Ubaldo DiBenedetto, has filed a lawsuit in Germany against Emmerich and the movie's local distributor, 20th Century Fox Deutschland. DiBenedetto seeks an unspecified amount in damages, claiming that his novel POLAR DAY 9 (written under the pseudonym Kyle Donner) was used for by Emmerich for TOMORROW's storyline. The book does contain similar scenes to the ones found in Emmerich's movie including beginning at an Arctic research station, a city being destroyed by ice and Americans rushing across the border into Mexico to escape harm.

Furthermore, DiBenedetto claims that he sent a copy of his novel to Emmerich back in 1998. As it stands now, Emmerich and screenwriter Jeffrey Nachimanoff are credited with TOMORROW screenplay, and credit is given to Whitley Streiber and Art Bell for inspiring the movie's story with their book THE COMING GLOBAL SUPERSTORM. The case will be looked at tomorrow in a German court.


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