Pen pal seeks 'Sonny' money
Lawsuit looks for more than $2 mil from Cage, others
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The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in federal court in Los Angeles and seeks damages of more than $2 million for the pic, which will be featured at the Deauville Festival of American Film. The suit also seeks to block the pic's sale in overseas territories.
Defendants include Intermedia, Gold Circle Films and its subsid Vortex Pictures, Pony Rides and Cage production shingle Saturn Films, along with Cage, screenwriter John Carlen and Vortex exec Paul Brooks.
Plaintiff Robert Dellinger, a longtime TV writer, said he and Carlen co-wrote four separate screenplays in the mid-1970s. Dellinger's suit alleged substantial pieces of the four screenplays ended up in Carlen's subsequent script for "Sonny," which tells the story of a young man who is raised in a brothel and becomes a prostitute.
Dellinger is suing for copyright infringement and for violation of the Lanham Act, for failing to identify him as a co-author.
Dellinger met Carlen at Terminal Island federal prison in Los Angeles in 1975, where Dellinger was teaching a creative writing course he had begun there while serving a sentence for extortion. Carlen, in prison for bank robbery, was a student in Dellinger's class. They subsequently collaborated on several scripts.
Earlier nibbles
Dellinger said there were several attempts to get the project made during the 1970s. But in October 1977, Carlen was arrested for attempted robbery at a Security Pacific Bank in San Diego. Carlen's defense made for days of headlines in the San Diego press. At his trial, Carlen claimed he was temporarily insane and acting out his own screenplay, "The Power and the Glory," when he attempted to rob the bank. The script involved a Vietnam prisoner of war who robs a bank in frustration over the way the government coddles a hijacker. Carlen was found guilty.
The "Sonny" project had several nibbles in Hollywood with various notables, including 1984 talks calling for Cage to star in the role, Dellinger said. No picture resulted, however, and the project seemed to die away.
Back on the books
Then in 2001, Dellinger said, he read news reports that the project had been revived, with Cage as director, starring James Franco, Brenda Blethyn and Mena Suvari. Carlen was credited with writing the script, and Dellinger's name was nowhere to be found.
"I knew it was my project. There's never been one like it in Hollywood," said Dellinger, 72, who has more than 50 TV writing credits from shows such as "Starsky and Hutch," "Kojak" and "21 Jump Street." "My reaction was stunned disbelief that that project would go ahead."
Dellinger said he tracked down Carlen, who "told me he thought I was dead. You can call this story 'Dead Man Writing.' "
According to a 1977 article in the New York Times, Carlen graduated from prostitution to bank robbery and robbed 28 Bank of America branches before he was arrested.
Another famous alumnus of Dellinger's prison writing class was Edward Bunker, whose "No Beast So Fierce" was made into the feature "Straight Time."
Bunker corroborated Dellinger's claim of co-authorship. He said Carlen had a bit part in "Straight Time," serving as a consultant on a bank robbery sequence.
Earlier suit
The lawsuit is the second Dellinger has filed over screen credits.
While at Terminal Island, he also met Mob boss Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno. In 1993, Dellinger had an executive producer credit on the CBS miniseries "Love, Honor and Obey: The Last Mafia Marriage," the story of the marriage of Bonanno and his wife, Rosalie.
In 1999, Dellinger sued his agent, Mickey Freiberg, and the Artists Agency, claiming he was cut out of the sequel, "Bonanno: A Godfather's Story," when Freiberg helped Bonanno make a deal directly with the filmmakers. Dellinger's suit was dismissed, he said, because it wasn't filed in a timely manner.
Spokesmen at Cage's production shingle Saturn declined comment on Tuesday's suit. An Intermedia spokesman declined comment, but said that while the company has a business relationship with Cage, it is not involved with the film.
