Stranger Things Creators Sued For Allegedly Plagiarizing Show Concept

The creators of Stranger Things are being sued for allegedly ripping off the writer who shared the idea with them.

Charlie Kessler filed a lawsuit Tuesday accusing the creators of Stranger Things of ripping off the idea from the short film he produced called The Montauk Project, which premiered in 2012 and even received an award at the Hamptons International Festival. The six-minute film's centerpiece involves top-secret government experiments - a key plot point in the Duffer Brothers' Stranger Things.

Kessler claims that he pitched the idea to Matt and Ross Duffer, the co-creators of Stranger Things in April 2014 as a full-blown series, when they met at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014. According to Kessler, the idea went nowhere at that time, but the Stranger Things creators used his idea for their show, which debuted on Netflix in 2016.

Kessler claims that he was shocked when Stranger Things debuted in July 2016 and claims the Duffer Brothers plagiarized his script, idea, story, and film to make the hit Netflix series. He says that the show was initially sold with the name on his short film, The Montauk Project.

In 1992, a book titled The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time was published and tells of repressed memories of top-secret government experiments at Montauk's Camp Hero, so neither Stranger Things nor The Montauk Project originated the idea of mysterious experiments surrounding a government facility on Long Island. Some Stranger Things actors even alluded to the connection during an interview with Wired, saying that Stranger Things was based on stories about Camp Hero.

Neither Netflix nor the Duffer Brothers have offered to comment about this issue.

Stranger Things Season 3 is currently in production and it's expected to premiere later this year.

H/T: Variety

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