Independent filmmakers sue over Drumline theme

<p>The makers of an independent movie about black college marching bands has sued the studio that financed the successful movie Drumline in federal court, saying the concept for the production was stolen.</p><p>Producer Darryl Lassiter and gospel singer David Gough filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New York. The lawsuit names 20th Century Fox and Fox Entertainment Group, saying they stole the idea for Drumline from their movie Pay the Price.</p><p>A Fox spokeswoman told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for a story in Wednesdays editions that the company had not yet been served and had no comment.</p><p>Lassiter wrote a screenplay in 1992 about his days at Alabama State University in Montgomery, Ala., as the Marching Hornets trumpet section leader. He produced his $200,000 movie in 2000.</p><p>Gough, the only person to provide funding for the independent film, could not secure a distribution deal but the movie was released on video last year at about the same time as Drumline was released in theaters around the country.</p><p>Drumline was produced by Atlanta music mogul Dallas Austin for $20 million. It grossed $54 million at the box office. Austin could not be reached for comment by the Journal-Constitution.</p><p>Lassiter said he met an assistant to Austin in 2000 and proposed that Austin help finance his films distribution. He also asked to direct Drumline but he said he never heard back.</p><p>Austin, a drummer in his high school marching band, previously told the Journal-Constitution that he came up with the idea for Drumline in the early 1990s. He said he never saw Pay the Price before producing Drumline.</p><p>Both films are based in Atlanta and focus on freshman students struggling to join a black college marching band.</p><p>Both movies used Clark Atlanta University and Morris Brown College bands. Both feature band directors who love classical music and both end in a battle of the bands competition.</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2003/11/184531