Sylvester Stallone Defeats ‘Expendables’ Plagiarism Lawsuit

Sylvester Stallone didn’t steal the story behind his 2010 movie The Expendables.

Stallone was sued by last October by author Marcus Webb who claimed that the action movie’s screenplay was “strikingly similar and in some places identical” to his screenplay for “The Cordoba Caper.” U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff disagreed with Webb and dismissed the lawsuit.

Rakoff did not give a reason for his decision but said that he would release a written statement in the near future.

Webb’s screenplay focuses on “a team of elite, highly trained mercenaries” much like The Expendables. Webb also said that The Cordoba Caper had been shopped around Hollywood for the last decade and that there’s a good chance that Stallone and his co-writer David Callaham had seen the script.

Stallone, of course, denied that he had any knowledge of The Cordoba Caper. Stallone also said that Callaham had written three drafts of The Expendables before Webb started shopping around his script.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that both scripts have a similar premise and focus on “highly trained mercenaries,” but The Expendables was written as a straight up action film. The Cordoba Caper is more of a complex adventure movie.

If Webb would have won his lawsuit against Stallone, The Expendables 2 may have been in jeopardy. But don’t worry, Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Bruce Willis, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Terry Crews, and Jason Statham will be hitting the big screen later this Summer.