Cameron & Hurd Sued Again!

In a whopper of a lawsuit, a county man has sued two well-known producers for billions of dollars, alleging they stole his idea and some of his music to create the Terminator movies.

Neil Goldberg, a songwriter, claims he 'just realized' the alleged deceit because he didn’t see the three movies during his decades-long "spiritual yoga path." The journey was marked, in part, by "shunning" all forms of media, said his attorney, Don Schwartz of Aptos.

The complaint against Terminator director & producer James Cameron and producer Gale Ann Hurd was filed last week in U.S. District Court in San Jose. It alleges the two have made more than $1 billion on the movie Schwartz calls the "ark of the covenant of the motion picture industry."

The suit alleges Cameron and Hurd, who then were working at New World Pictures, conspired to promote the first movie in the series without telling Goldberg. The pair left the company and made the movie on a $2 million budget that is peanuts compared to the money poured out for its successors, Schwartz said.

The Terminator was released in 1984 and starred film warrior-turned-California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Goldberg sent the idea to New World in 1980, Schwartz said, in a copyrighted script called "Long Live Music," along with a copyrighted soundtrack.

The lawsuit seeks a return of profits, $5 billion damages and prevention of further movie-related sales without a contract with Goldberg. "Cameron’s career should have been Neil Goldberg’s career," Schwartz said. "He stole a movie and an idea and a career, and he should have to pay for it."

Goldberg, 61, moved to Santa Cruz from Hollywood in the late 1980s after becoming disillusioned by the music industry, Schwartz said. Here, he worked in electronic recycling and owned Computer Jones on Winkle Avenue for many years, he said.

In the 1970s, under contract with Columbia Records, Goldberg wrote songs with the likes of Tom Jones, Dusty Springfield and Bill Medley, he said.

Parts of the movie soundtrack are indistinguishable from Goldberg’s soundtrack, "Heavy Light," he said, and the futuristic war-by-computer movie idea is the same.

"It’s the exact story," he said. "When I first heard this, I had an element of doubt, but the copyright clearly predates ‘Terminator.’ It’s absolutely undeniable."

Goldberg, reached by e-mail, said his alleged experience is maddeningly common in the industry. "Some say that the music and entertainment industry today are rife with lawsuits," he wrote. "I say the industry is rife with thievery."

Cameron’s manager, Walter Sherr of Sherman Oaks-based Sher, Sherr, Gelb & Co., said he had not seen the lawsuit and has 'received instructions in the past' not to comment on them. "But lawsuits such as this one happen in the industry," he said. "Mr. Cameron is a very creative individual. I have no doubt it’s his own idea; and these things, from my understanding, end up going nowhere."

He would not comment on allegations that Cameron had stolen ideas. "It would not be anything I could say in polite company". An attorney for Cameron did not return a phone call seeking comment. Hurd could not be reached to comment.

Some ideas in Terminator 3 were in Goldberg’s script as well, Schwartz said.

Global Arnold says:

Another day, another lawsuit! When will these crazy weirdos realise that they're just fantasizing about being involved with such huge projects as the Terminator movies, so much so that they actually believe that they have something to do with the creative genius that spawned these masterpieces?!

They're even more crazy than a man that says he was sent from the future to protect a woman from a cyborg, who's covered in living human tissue! It's only a matter of time until these small time losers are terminated from court!

Plus... they need to do some more research, if they think they're going to pull this off right! T1's budget was $6 million, not $2 million!

Global Arnold Staff

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