files/pictures/picture-35.jpgU.S. District Judge Denny Chin has ruled that writer James Muller must repay 20th Century Fox's attorney fees after losing his lawsuit against the studio over ALIEN VS. PREDATOR, reports
The Hollywood Reporter. Muller claimed that ALIENS VS. PREDATOR was a ripoff of his script THE LOST CONTINENT, which had humans battling aliens in Antarctica. Chin believed that Muller's suit was "frivolous and objectively unreasonable" because the scripts for the two films were very different and the similarities were based on stock ideas that can't be copyrighted.
It was revealed in the case that Fox's true attorney fees were $300,000, but the studio was satisfied with asking for only $150,000 for compensation and deterrence purposes. After the judge looked at the writer's tax returns, he reduced the amount to $40,000.
