Ask me no questions

There is always more White Wolf v. Sony. Here’s Danny McBride’s declaration, as promised (the third screenwriter).

I also have White Wolf’s interrogatory of 9/18 for you. The relevant bit seems to be the five questions asked, which I will reproduce for those who scorn PDFs:

1. Identify all sources for the items listed for Underworld on the comparison chart attached hereto as Exhibit “A.”
2. Identify all documents read, references or used at any time by anyone with any involvement in creating or contributing to the script, screenplay, treatments, character studies, script or production notes, movie, comic book or novel for Underworld.
3. Identify all persons involved in the creative process for any version or draft of the script, storyboards and/or script or production notes for any version of Underworld.
4. Identify all vampire and werewolf books or sources reviewed (including Internet search engines), read or consulted by Wiseman, McBride, Grevioux or any other person involved in the creative process for the script(s), storyboards and/or script or production notes for any version of Underworld.
5. Identify all persons who may be used by you at any hearing in this case and/or upon the trial of this case to present evidence under Rules 702, 703 or 705 of the Federal Rules of Evidence and provide the disclosures required by Rule 26(a)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

And a few notes:

Exhibit A is a long list of purported similarities. It’s more or less the same as the list in White Wolf’s original complaint, except that it cites specific pages in both White Wolf’s books and in the script. It’s at the end of the PDF linked above.

It strikes me as slightly odd that question 2 doesn’t specify computer games, since the subtitle “Bloodlines” is one of White Wolf’s claimed points of similarity.

Rule 702 says expert witnesses may testify, Rule 703 describes when an expert witness can testify, and rule 705 says an expert witness can testify in terms of opinion or inference without first testifying to the underlying facts. Rule 26(a)(2) calls for disclosure of expert witnesses. I.e., if you’re gonna call expert witnesses, you gotta tell the other side in advance.