The makers of The Hurt Locker have been hit by a multi-million dollar lawsuit from an American soldier who claims he was the inspiration for the film.
Master Sgt Jeffrey Sarver filed papers in a US district court in New Jersey which allege that “The Hurt Locker motion picture and DVD are nothing more than an exploitation of a real life honorable, courageous and long-serving member of our armed forces, by greedy multi-billion dollar ‘entertainment’ corporations”.
Sgt Sarver says journalist Mark Boal, who wrote the screenplay for the film after being embedded with a US Army unit in Iraq, based the film’s main character on his life but lied by claiming the character was fictional.
The bomb disposal expert’s lawyer Geoffrey Fieger said: “They literally transposed his life in the film and then claimed it was a work of fiction.
“The only fiction was the claim it was a work of fiction.
“The screenplay says he is a blonde, blue-eyed trailer trash from Tennessee, but he’s blonde, blue-eyed and grew up in a trailer in West Virginia.
“Nobody can claim with a straight face that it’s not Jeff Sarver.”
Sgt Sarver, who wants the opening credits to list him as the basis for the character Will James, says that Boal was with his bomb disposal unit when he was commissioned to write an article for Playboy magazine in 2005 that led to the Hurt Locker screenplay.
He claims that he spoke at length with Boal and that he coined the phrase “the hurt locker”.
Among those named in the suit are Boal, director Kathryn Bigelow and distributor Summit Entertainment.
The case comes as a second blow in consecutive days to the film, which is nominated for nine Oscars this weekend, after an email from producer Nicholas Chartier to Academy voters urging them not to vote for Avatar was leaked to the press.
Attempting to sway voters by disparaging a rival film is strictly against Academy rules and he has been banned from attending the ceremony as a sanction.
Summit Entertainment did not comment directly on Mr Sarver’s allegations but issued a statement saying that they hoped for “a quick resolution” to his claims.
“We have no doubt that Master Sgt Sarver served his country with honour and commitment risking his life for a greater good, but we distributed the film based on a fictional screenplay written by Mark Boal,” the statement read.
“We hope for a quick resolution to the claims made by Master Sgt Sarver.”
At a news conference Sgt Sarver’s legal team said that they had deliberately not spoken out until after this year’s Oscar ballot had closed on Tuesday as they did not want to prejudice Academy voters.
“We want the movie to be successful, because that is in my client’s benefit,” said Mr Fieger, adding that if the suit is successful the producers will “have to share the financial benefit that apparently they are going to reap from this movie”.
He added: “I would hope they do the right thing, but my experience tells me when people have money they rarely do the right thing.”
