Still reeling from having producer Nicolas Chartier banned from this Sunday’s Oscar ceremonies, Summit Entertainment, the studio behind the Best Picture front runner “The Hurt Locker,” has just been served with a multimillion dollar lawsuit by an Iraqi war veteran who claims that the film’s main character, Will James, was actually based on him.
Master Sergeant Jeffrey S. Sarver, a bomb technician who served in the Iraq War, filed the suit in a New Jersey courtroom on Tuesday, claiming that “virtually all of the situations” that occurred in the movie were taken from his real life war experiences. A prologue at the beginning of the film states that the events shown are fictional.
Sarver named director Kathryn Bigelow, distributor Summit Entertainment and screenwriter/co-producer Mark Boal as defendants. According to the suit Boal, a journalist at the time, spent time embedded in the same bomb-dismantling unit Sarver served in while in Iraq. Sarver also complains in the suit that he is the one who came up with the term “the hurt locker.”
In response to the suit, Summit Entertainment released a statement, saying they hoped for a “quick resolution to the claims made by MSG Sarver. “We have no doubt that MSG Sarver served his country with honor and commitment… risking his life for a greater good. But, we distributed the film based on a fictional screenplay written by Mark Boal. “The Hurt Locker” is nominated for nine Academy Awards, including a nomination for Boal for original screenplay.
Earlier this week, producer Chartier was banned from attending the awards ceremony after the academy learned he had sent out an email asking academy members to vote for “The Hurt Locker,” “not a “$500 million film” — an obvious reference to blockbuster best-picture contender “Avatar.” The executive committee of the producers branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences imposed the penalty on Chartier, stating he violated academy rules that prohibit mailings promoting one film and disparaging another.
Should “The Hurt Locker” win Best Picture, Chartier will be presented his Oscar at a later date.
