A screenwriter is suing the Walt Disney Co. for $1 million, claiming it stole his idea about a nuclear missile crisis for the hit movie "Crimson Tide."
San Francisco writer Bill Waid says he shopped his 1989 screenplay, "Launch Sequence," all over Hollywood. Disney then used it as the basis for "Crimson Tide," the 1995 submarine thriller starring Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman, the lawsuit contends.Besides Disney and several subsidiaries, the lawsuit names the estate of Don Simp-son, who produced the movie with partner Jerry Bruckheimer. Simpson was found dead of a drug overdose in his home in January.
Disney had no immediate comment.