The director of Montauk, a short film about an incident on a Long Island beach, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing the creators of Stranger Things of stealing his ideas.
Charlie Kessler says he made the six-minute film in 2012 as a teaser for a feature film to be called “The Montauk Project.” He claims that he pitched the idea to Matt and Ross Duffer, the co-creators of the Netflix sci-fi hit when they met at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014. Kessler says the idea when nowhere, until the Duffer brothers used it as the name for Stranger Things, which debuted 4 years later.
The short film uses found footage to tell the story of a paranormal government facility. Stranger Things, which was sold to Netflix under the same title as the Kessler’s short film, Montauk, also involves supernatural experiences surrounding a government lab.
The first season was released on Netflix on July 15, 2016. It received critical acclaim for its characterization, pacing, atmosphere, acting, soundtrack, directing, writing, and homages to 1980s pop-culture films. The series has received several industry nominations and awards, including winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2016 and receiving eighteen nominations for the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series. On August 31, 2016, Netflix renewed the series for the second season of nine episodes, which was released on October 27, 2017. In December 2017, Netflix ordered a third season, which will consist of eight episodes. The Duffer Brothers have said that Stranger Things is likely to end after its fourth or fifth season.
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