A court has rejected a request for Netflix to take down Xavier Gens’ shark thriller Under Paris amid the film’s ongoing plagiarism case.
The synopsis for the sharksploitation film teases: ‘In order to save Paris from an international bloodbath, a grieving scientist is forced to face her tragic past when a giant shark appears in the Seine.’
And it took the streaming giant by storm, with many viewers taking to social media to express how the high-octane thriller has ‘no right’ being as good as it is.
But since it became the most-watched French language film on the streaming giant, writer and director Vincent Dietschy has launched a case against Under Paris for ‘parasitism.’
Parasitism is defined as ‘one party follows in the footsteps of another party’s efforts and know-how to benefit from their enterprise without seeking permission or making payment’ per France’s Civil Code.
The director says the feature was developed without his knowledge from an original idea called Silure he registered in 2011, and lodged a request for the film to be taken from the platform.
The Paris court ultimately denied the request as he sued lead producers Edouard Duprey and Sébastien Auscher and top talent agent Laurent Grégoire.
Dietschy accused the producers and agent of gaining knowledge of Silure around 2014 when information about the project began to circulate when he was attempting to find partners.
Both producers have strongly denied the accusations, saying in a statement: ‘We had never heard of Silure until the formal notice we received last year from Mr. Dietschy’s Counsel.
‘Under Paris is an original project, and we’ll exercise our right to defend ourselves in the court proceedings brought by Mr Dietschy.
‘We will be asking the court to award us significant damages for defamation, because we’re facing a very aggressive, totally unfounded procedure, which has caused significant harm, reputationally and professionally.’
The Paris judge ruled on Wednesday (July 3) that the takedown request was ‘inadmissible’ after the paperwork had named Netflix’s French branch rather than its Netherlands-based parent Netflix International BV.
Dietschy’s lawyer Maître Héloïse de Castelnau said in a statement: ‘Parasitism is where you use other people’s work, without making an exact copy… it will be a long and drawn-out case due to the analysis of the contracts and paperwork involved, and I wouldn’t expect a judgement for at least a year.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted representatives from Netflix for comment.
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