Harlan Ellison is about as blunt as you can get, and he has earned his clout being one of the most prolific and accomplished writers in TV and Novels. And now the saucy scribe has gone and sued Star Trek for creating derivative works based on his legendary script for City on the Edge of Forever, one of the most critically acclaimed episodes of the entire Star Trek franchise.
Author and aging enfant terrible Harlan Ellison issued a typically amusing press release detailing a lawsuit he’s launched against Paramount regarding use of intellectual property deriving from his 1966 Star Trek script “The City On The Edge Of Forever”. Specificially a trilogy of Trek novels that use multiple elements of “City” as a springboard.
Normally I don’t care much for writers suing to get their cut since most of them are entitlement whores who want more than their contract outlines. However, Ellison is not an idiot, and this case looks like it could have merrit. It appears that this WAS in his contract. It seems that any stories that stem from the events he wrote would earn him residuals. Some novels were written based on the outcome of the events of his story, so he wants his piece. The piece that his contract suggests are due him.
This is how I think these things should be resolved. If its in your contract, you are entitled, but if you failed to stipulate it in the contract, that’s too bad. You were paid for a job and the job now belongs to those who paid for it.
You can read the whole press release at Harlan Ellison’s Website
Otherwise, be treated to a moment of classic clarity by Harlan discussing “getting paid” in Hollywood.
