Is "Knocked Up" a Knockoff?

by poprocks | June 6, 2007 at 01:39 pm

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TMZ.com is reporting that Canadian columnist/blogger Rebecca Eckler is suing Universal Pictures and director Judd Apatow, alleging that the hit movie "Knocked Up" was taken directly from her book, called "Knocked Up: Confessions of a Hip Mother to Be." Eckler says she shopped the book around in 2004, but learned of the Apatow project in the meantime. Other similarities include the book's female characters: one is a an up-and-coming newspaper reporter, the one in the movie is a television reporter. Also, both stories have a female character in common that both main characters go to for advice.

A NowPublic editor spoke via phone, Wednesday, to a close friend and colleague of Executive Producer Evan Goldberg and star Seth Rogan. The source, who prefers to remain anonymous, doubts the authenticity of Eckler's claim. "I know how they work; they just sit around and chat about ideas. They don't really do any research. And the premise of the movie is a pretty simple and common idea. There's no way they knowingly stole it," he said.

Eckler, who told her tale in this month's Maclean's magazine, cites other similarities -- including the fact that the Katherine Heigl character is an up-and-coming television reporter, and the main character in Eckler's book is an up-and-coming newspaper reporter. She also says that the movie and book have a secondary female character in common -- the person that both main characters go to for advice -- and that both of the secondary characters have screaming children.