Steven Spielberg named in a lawsuit charging that the film Disturbia was a rip-off

...of the story that was the basis for Hitchcock's Rear Window.

Also named in the suit are

Dreamworks, its parent company Viacom Inc, and Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric Co's NBC Universal

That the 2007 movie was a high-tech take on the 1954 classic is obvious to anyone who saw it--and probably to anyone who didn't see it but just heard the premise.

Still, I'm not sure how easy a time the plaintiffs are going to find proving an injustice has been done. For one thing, Disturbia is hardly the only movie to rip off Rear Window, in whole or in part.

For another, Spielberg has been virtually untouchable in Hollywood for at least a quarter of a century. If you think about it it's kind of scary. He never even had to testify in court after three people (including two children) were killed on the set of one of his productions.

I wish the plaintiffs luck--if only because I was openly rooting for the killer when I saw Disturbia. And I resent it for helping to make Shia LaBeouf an action hero...