Author launches court challenge against Spielberg over film plot

A CHILDREN’S author is taking on Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg, claiming the director’s production company stole his story for the big-screen hit Chicken Run.

British writer Alan Davidson launched a legal fight this week to prove the animated movie was based on his 1995 novel Escape From Cold Ditch.

He alleges that Chicken Run, produced by Spielberg's DreamWorks studio and animators Peter Lord and Nick Park, infringed copyright protecting his critically acclaimed children's tale of a hen that leads an escape from a chicken farm. And he claims the movie, accredited to Lord and Park, infringes his moral right to be identified as the author.

Mr Davidson, of East Sussex, refused to comment yesterday but a family spokesman said: "This is a matter of principle and honesty."

Court papers cite a number of "striking" similarities between Escape From Cold Ditch and Chicken Run.

Both stories have as their protagonist a rebellious female chicken Fleur in Escape From Cold Ditch and Ginger in Chicken Run who want their friends to break out and who ultimately lead World War II-style escapes across fields and barbed wire.

The claim states: "According to Nick Park when Park and Lord pitched the idea to DreamWorks in January 1996, 'all we had was this one joke: an escape movie with chickens'."