First, a face tattoo was at the center of a legal battle with the second "Hangover" film. Now, it's one man's (alleged) life story that is spawning a lawsuit over the Warner Bros. sequel. At issue is the general premise of "The Hangover Part II": Man goes to Asia for wedding, things go terribly awry. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Michael Alan Rubin claims that the film was stolen from a script he wrote, based on his own Asian honeymoon adventure.
"The production of 'Hangover 2' is not a complete 'literary' or 'artistic' works of the 'Hangover' Defendants as credited in 'Hangover 2,'" THR quotes the complaint as saying. "In fact, the production of 'Hangover 2' was a result of infringement of the Plaintiff's treatment 'Mickey and Kirin' and exploitation of the private real life of Plaintiff in an insulting manner."
(To review the alleged similarities between Rubin's story and the film, in greater detail, go here.
Couple of things to note here: Rubin is representing himself, which is generally a red flag when going up against a company as big (and deep-pocketed) as Warner Bros. And if Rubin did have such an outrageous story to claim as his own, wouldn't it have surfaced somewhere beyond a script that never went anywhere? Call me skeptical.
Warner Bros. has yet to respond to a request for comment -- we'll keep you posted on that front.