Michael Crichton says he and his wife acted out the plot turns in their "Twister" screenplay while they were writing it.
Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin used several sources, including books and videos about tornado chasers, to create the screenplay, he testified Wednesday in St. Louis in lawsuit alleging he stole the screenplay for the hit movie.Stephen Kessler contends in his 1996 lawsuit that some of the biggest names in Hollywood - including Steven Spielberg - ripped off his script "Catch the Wind" to make "Twister." Kessler seeks the entire multimillion-dollar profit from "Twister."
Crichton said he and Martin had never heard of Kessler or his screenplay before he filed the lawsuit.
They got the idea to write a screenplay after seeing a TV documentary about storm chasers, Crichton testified. They decided to make theirs "a zany and screwball comedy" with a touch of drama, based on the 1940 comedy "His Girl Friday," he said.
Crichton said Martin came up with "Twister" plot and dialogue ideas while he typed them.
"We basically acted it out," Crichton said.