According to TMZ, a Southern Califonia man confessed to writing the Bow Wow vehicle Lottery Ticket in recently-filed court documents in L.A. County.  Bail has not been set.

The man filing the lawsuit is Tom Huang — who once wrote an episode of “The Mullets” back in 2003.
According to legal documents, Huang claims he came up with an idea for a movie back in 2004, wrote a “treatment” for it … and talked it over with his agent Brad Kaplan.
But in the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in L.A. County Superior Court, Huang claims Kaplan “stole” the idea and gave it to one of his clients named Erik White .. who went on to write and direct “Lottery Ticket.”
Huang claims “Lottery Ticket” ripped off all sorts of elements from his movie — including “detailed plot elements, characters, and scenes.” Huang is suing for an undisclosed amount — but states in the lawsuit that he believes “Lottery Ticket” will rake in millions … so it’s safe to say he’s gonna want a ton of cash.

My sources say Huang went on to claim that White not only stole from him, but just hung out in his store all day reading magazines like it was a god d*mned library.  Anyway, if Huang has proof at all, this should be an open and shut case, as a plot like this is unmistakable:

Kevin Carson (Bow Wow), a young man living in the projects, wins $370 million in a nationwide lottery. When his opportunistic neighbors discover he has the winning ticket in his possession, Kevin must survive their greedy and sometimes even threatening actions over a three—day holiday weekend before he can claim his prize.

I’d like to believe this plagiarism story isn’t true, because I simply refuse to believe that a person would stoop so low as to steal a maltese falcon’s fabergé egg of an idea such as this.

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I steal from Patton Oswalt all the time, but when I do it, it’s awesome.  And while I occasionally incorporate certain words or phrases I’ve heard him use that have since become a part of my personal lexicon– because that’s what fans do — I don’t tell stories from Patton’s life and pass them off as my own.  Because that’s what serial killers do.

Enter Columbia School of General Studies (Columbia’s part-time undergraduate program for working adults) valedictorian Brian Corman.  Corman apparently hadn’t seen Patton Oswalt’s recent public shaming of a comedian in Iowa who’d been stealing his act.  Or maybe Corman did see it, and thought it’d be a great idea to try to pull off the same trick, only this time in front of 10 times as many people, at a filmed event, in New York City.  Brilliant.  In the video above, you can see Corman lift pretty much word for word Patton’s “Physics for Poets” bit (which I’ve included below).  What I don’t understand is, isn’t ‘Physics for Poets’ not a class a Columbia?  And of all people, wouldn’t it be your fellow students who’d know that?  It doesn’t make any sense, dude. (Psst, just say it was performance art).

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Meet Tom Perkins.  He’s a disturbingly enthusiastic young Brit who, until a few days ago, had a web show called FilmXTRATOM (“Film Extra Tom”), which was often promoted on the Heyuguys blog (settle down, I hadn’t heard of them before now either).  That was when someone discovered that the movie reviews Tom had been excitedly reading into the camera had actually been stolen from other film sites. A site called the TheFollowingPreview has a thorough breakdown of which reviews he stole from where; mostly JoBlo.com and a handful of British sites. When JoBlo called him out for stealing their Iron Man 2 review a few days ago, he first tried to deny it, Tweefing:

Im a weird mood at the moment because people think i stolen someones review. Anyone that knows me knows that i dont read anyones review

It’s hard to know what he was thinking, considering anyone with Google and a pair of eyeballs could see he was blatantly lying.  He finally copped to it a day later, and has since pulled all the videos from his YouTube Channel (if you can get the video to work, JoBlo has a rip of his Iron Man 2 review stolen mostly verbatim from their site).  Today they posted his apology letter, which reads in part:

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So far, James Cameron’s Avatar has been accused of plagiarizing everything from obscure 50s sci-fi to Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest.  But nothing has compared to the uncanny resemblance between the Na’avi and the cover of this 1985 comic, Timespirits #6 (as discovered by Superpunch).   Here’s a side-by-side comparison here, if you’re into the whole things-appearing-abreast… thing.  There’s an even more thorough breakdown of the visual similarities here.

Wikipedia doesn’t say anything about the plot of Timespirits, which is insane, as Wikipedia’s comic book synopses tend to be twice as thorough as entries for presidents or historical battles.  Nonetheless, considering Avatar‘s enormous budget and everyone involved’s deep pockets, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lawsuit from Timespirits authors Steve Perry (not the guy from Journey) and Tom Yeates.  And if the case did go to court, it is my fervent hope that everyone involved wear 3-D glasses.

I’ve posted trailers for 12 Rounds and The Tooth Fairy, and just when I thought WWE’s movie projects couldn’t get any worse… THEY TOTALLY REDEEM THEMSELVES!

[In "Knucklehead"], WWE Superstar, Paul “Big Show” Wight plays Walter Krunk, a 7-foot-tall, 440-pound naïve giant who was raised in the St. Thomas Orphanage and never left – until he takes to the road with Eddie and Mary.

Shortly after Eddie loses his new fighter and finds himself $50,000 in debt to longtime nemesis and bookie Memphis Earl (DENNIS FARINA), he discovers Walter, a bumbling life-long resident of the orphanage-turned-handyman with his own debt problems: The kitchen fire Walter caused will close down the church’s orphanage in a week unless he comes up with $50,000. Upon overhearing Walter’s predicament, Eddie convinces the no-nonsense head nun, Sister Francesca (WENDY MALICK) that Walter can win the $100,000 grand prize at the tournament to pay off the church’s debts. But in order to do so, he will need to take Walter on the road, enter amateur fights along the way, and teach him how to become a real fighter. [via WWE Corporate via MMAMania]

That’s right, a retarded giant fights MMA in order save the church orphanage – PLUS – no Cam Gigandet.  It might be the world’s most perfect premise. However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that the exact phrase “retard MMA” has appeared in the FilmDrunk comments section no less than 34 times, the first going back to December 2007.  See also: my January 2008 headline “WILL MMA SAVE THE REC CENTER?“  Where’s our money, Vince McMahon?

Tagline: MMA: So easy a retarded church orphan could do it.