Dean Murphy, director and co-writer of Strange Bedfellows, which was Australia's highest-grossing film in 2004 according to the Brisbane Times, is concerned that filmmakers involved in , which opens in the U.S. this weekend, may have ripped off his idea.
The Times reports: “Starring [Paul] Hogan and Michael Caton, Strange Bedfellows was about a straight cinema owner and a mechanic who pretend to be gay to claim a financial benefit.”
In , Adam Sandler and Kevin James play firefighters who pretend to be gay in order to claim domestic partner benefits from the city of New York.
According to the paper, “While he is yet to see the new movie, Murphy said he was struck by the similarities when he saw the trailer on the weekend. He heard other cinemagoers mention Strange Bedfellows as the trailer screened. Murphy has also been receiving emails every day saying Chuck and Larry seems like exactly the same film. ‘It's obviously annoying if they have ripped the film off but until we see it, it's so hard to know,' he said. The American distributor of Strange Bedfellows is looking at possible copyright infringement. ‘I don't think they've seen the other film yet but … they're going to have a careful look at it and see if there have been any breaches,' Murphy said.”
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