By James Wray Mar 29, 2005, 23:59 GMT
The New York Times is reporting that author James Reston Jr. claims the studio has taken events, characters and other details from his novel "Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade" and used them in their forthcoming film, which stars Orlando Bloom.
Fox is denying these claims and says the film is based on research and history. In a statement the studio says: "The works are not substantially similar. In fact they are completely dissimilar, other than having in common some elements that are historically authentic."
Fox say that Balian is only mentioned on ten pages of the book out of four hundred; though it not clear how much of the character is fleshed out.
The director, Ridley Scott, also claims not to have read the book saying for the very reason of lawsuits he avoids reading works about the subject he is filming.
Whether Reston takes action remains to be seen, though sales of his book are bound to increase through any association, whether negative or positive it has with the movie.
You can find out more about "Kingdom of Heaven" in our database. Details on "Warriors of God" are also available.
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