Writer's lawsuit says Disney copied his plans for 'Zootopia'

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A screenwriter and producer sued Walt Disney Pictures on Tuesday claiming the studio copied his ideas to create the Oscar-winning animated film "Zootopia."

Gary L. Goldman, whose credits include work on film adaptations of Total Recall, ''Minority Report and Big Trouble in Little China, filed the copyright infringement lawsuit Tuesday in a federal court in Los Angeles.

"About five years ago, almost six now, oh my god, we got this crazy idea to talk about humanity with talking animals in the hopes that when the film came out, it would make the world just a slightly better place," said Byron Howard, one of the film's directors during his acceptance speech at last month's Oscars.

"Both works explore whether the societies can live up to utopian ideals and judge and credit others fairly as individuals not as stereotypes, based on conceptions of merit not natural order, and the protagonists are challenged to strike a balance between the utopian and counter-utopian positions, optimism and pessimism, nature and individuality, and self-acceptance and self-improvement," the lawsuit states.