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Tarantino’s ‘Hateful Eight’ lawsuit gets tossed: 4 other filmmakers’ high-profile legal cases

After an early draft of Quentin Tarantino's script for "The Hateful Eight" leaked online earlier this year, the director threw in the towel on the project. After going on a lengthy and very public tirade, the Tarantino subsequently sued blog Gawker for copyright infringement for their alleged involvement in leaking the script (they posted the leaked materials).

Unfortunately for Tarantino, a judge has just tossed his suit against the website, on the grounds that the filmmaker doesn’t really have much of a case.

“Plaintiff [Tarantino] merely speculates that some direct infringement must have taken place,” Judge John Walter said in a motion. “For example, Plaintiff’s Complaint fails to allege the identity of a single third-party infringer, the date, the time, or the details of a single instance of third-party infringement, or, more importantly, how Defendant [Gawker] allegedly caused, induced, or materially contributed to the infringement by those third parties.”

Tarantino has until May 1 to file an amended complaint.

Of course, the “Pulp Fiction” director isn’t the first filmmaker to become embroiled in a high-profile legal case. Here are four other strange lawsuits involving directors.

Patsy Ann Byers vs. Oliver Stone

Oliver Stone's film tend to be a little on the violent side, but no Stone film is more controversial than 1994’s “Natural Born Killers." Part of the controversy surrounding the ultra-violent film stems from a real-life 1995 crime spree that left a woman completely paralyzed and a man dead.

After watching “Natural Born Killers,” deranged couple Sarah Edmondson and Ben Darras went on a criminal rampage through Louisiana and Mississippi that included shooting convenience store clerk Patsy Ann Byers. Byers was left a quadriplegic and sued Stone and studio Warner Bros. for inciting Edmondson and Darras’ violent spree with the film. Byers died in 1997 and the case was eventually thrown out in 2001.

John Landis vs. Michael Jackson

Director John Landis is best known for directing classics like “An American Werewolf in London” and “Animal House,” and “The Blues Brothers. But did you know that he also co-wrote and directed the iconic music video for Michael Jackson’s chart-topping hit “Thriller”? Shortly before the singer’s death in 2009, Landis sued the King of Pop for his share of the “Thriller” profits (estimated to be around $2.3 million after 25 years).

Jackson, who famously employed a veritable army of lawyers, likely would have fought the lawsuit, but his death resulted in the estate settling the case in 2012.

Landis is no stranger to lawsuits himself. The filmmaker was sued by the families of actor Vic Morrow and two child actors in 1982 after the trio were killed in the infamous “Twilight Zone” helicopter accident.

Samantha Geimer vs. Roman Polanski

One of the most notorious court cases in Hollywood history took place in 1977, when director Roman Polanski (“Chinatown,” “The Pianist”) was charged with drugging and sexually assaulting then-13-year-old Samantha Gailey.

Polanski and his attorneys eventually worked out a plea bargain that would have seen him charged with the “lesser crime” of engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse, but when it looked as though the District Attorney and judge wanted to send the director to prison (allegedly against to the terms of the plea deal), the director fled the United States for Europe, where he has remained to this day. Though Polanski was never convicted, he was sued by Gailey (now Geimer) in 1988 over the assault and subsequent emotional distress, a lawsuit that he reportedly settled for $500,000.

Sarah Deming vs. the producers of “Drive”

As ridiculous lawsuits go, Michigan moviegoer Sarah Deming’s case against the 2011 Ryan Gosling film “Drive” takes the cake. Deming sued the producers and distributors, alleging that they misled potential moviegoers and "promoted the film ‘Drive’ as very similar to the ‘Fast and Furious,’ or similar, series of movies."

No, really, that was her entire case: Deming expected a Vin Diesel movie when she went to see “Drive,” and got an ultraviolent arthouse thriller instead, so she sued. The ridiculous case also alleged that the film contained “extreme gratuitous defamatory dehumanizing racism directed against members of the Jewish faith” (the film’s villains, played by Ron Perlman and Albert Brooks, happened to be Jewish). Deming sought a refund for her ticket and demanded that Hollywood stop producing misleading trailers.

Quentin Tarantino may have had his “Hateful Eight” lawsuit thrown out by a judge, but at least he can take solace in the fact that he’s not the only filmmaker to ever be wrapped up in strange or unseemly lawsuits troubles. As legal woes go, his is comparatively tame.