Actress Angelina Jolie disputes lawsuit over her film
Angelina Jolie is asking a Chicago judge to dismiss, or transfer to California, a lawsuit claiming her 2011 film “In the Land of Blood and Honey” ripped off the work of a Croatian journalist.
The Oscar-winning actress writes in a court filing bearing her signature that she doesn’t “regularly travel to Illinois for business or pleasure” and has no other business ties to the state.
“None of the work I performed on the picture – as writer, director or producer – occurred within the state of Illinois,” she wrote. “I have not made any public appearances in Illinois to promote the picture.”
Jolie was sued shortly before her directorial debut “Blood and Honey” was released in December. Croatian journalist James Braddock, also known as Josip J. Knezevic, alleged the film infringed on his copyrighted book about the Balkan War called “The Soul Shattering.”
Braddock alleges in the lawsuit filed in federal court here that he met three times with Jolie’s producer on the film in 2008 and discussed turning his book into a movie — talks that allegedly continued into 2009.
Braddock’s Chicago attorney, Kelly Saindon, said this afternoon that she expects the case will be transferred to federal court in California after a hearing next week.
She said the lawsuit was filed here to get it on record before Jolie’s film came out.
Jolie told the LA Times in an interview last year that she’d never seen Braddock’s book but drew from a variety of sources for her film, including books by journalists Peter Maas and Tom Gielten.
“It’s par for the course. It happens on almost every film,” she said during the interview.
“There are many books and documentaries that I did pull from,” she said. “It’s a combination of many people’s stories. But that particular book I’ve never seen.”
“Blood and Honey” has grossed about $300,000 in the U.S., according to Box Office Mojo.
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