Author seeks $3 billion from Netflix for allegedly plagiarizing climate change plot

Is Netflix mining Amazon’s self-published section for its movie ideas or do a lot of people just have extreme climate anxiety right now? That’s the question a new lawsuit regarding the 2021 Adam McKay film Don’t Look Up will attempt to answer. Per Variety, the suit comes from Darren Hunter, a self-published author from Harleysville, PA, who claims that the Jennifer Lawrence-led parable stole thematic, plot, and character elements from his 2015 novel, The Million Day Forecast.

Apparently, Hunter’s novel also features a young female protagonist who must warn the world of a looming catastrophe. “The themes of apocalyptic political satire, dark comedy, and the challenges of mobilizing collective action in the face of imminent danger are central to both works,” the lawsuit states. Of course, all of that has also been happening in the real world since long before Don’t Look Up began drawing eyeballs. (Greta Thunberg, for example, would like a word.) Remember that when the movie came out, it was derided by some for being too on the nose. Still, the suit goes on to claim that “these undeniable similarities indicate that the movie has taken key literary elements from the book without Plaintiff’s consent and authorization.”

In a statement, Hunter’s attorney, Larry Klayman, called McKay and the rest of Netflix’s team out for their “deceit and greed” which he called an “unfortunate testament to the current state of some in Hollywood.” Then again, Variety reports that the suit is seeking a shocking $3 billion in damages across 34 causes of action. That’s about 30 times what Netflix co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos made in 2023 combined. Greed is a pretty funny word to be using when talking numbers on that scale.

Some other information to note about this particular suit that we’ll, uh, just leave here for you to process on your own. According to the outlet, Klayman, the attorney, is currently under investigation by the Florida Bar, which is seeking to suspend his license for two years based on misconduct findings that led to a similar suspension in Washington D.C.. Klayman is currently appealing that case. Here’s one more: on Hunter’s Amazon author bio, it says he decided to write The Million Day Forecast “after being visited from a strange being who said they were from the galaxy Centaurus A.” So there’s that.

On the other hand, this isn’t the first lawsuit accusing this particular film of plagiarism. Last year, self-published author William Collier filed a similar complaint alleging that the film took themes from his 2012 novel, Stanley’s Comet. That suit was dismissed last month after a federal judge found that any similarities were too “generic” to warrant infringement protection. There’s a good chance the same will happen here, but the pattern created by the extreme similarities in all these climate apocalypse titles is far more important than any singular outcome. It’s yet another reason to keep looking up.