Former classmates of Dazed and Confused director sue him for mocking them SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Three former high school classmates of Dazed and Confused director Richard Linklater have filed a lawsuit claiming they suffered embarrassment and ridicule because of characters based on them in the movie.
The men — Bobby Wooderson, Andy Slater and Richard (Pink) Floyd — said Linklater did not have their permission before creating three characters in the 1993 cult classic sharing their surnames and likenesses.
The suit was filed Thursday in Santa Fe against Universal Studios, which released the film.
The movie follows the drug- and alcohol-fuelled hijinks of teenagers on the last day of school in May 1976. The men said the negative characterizations in the film have made their lives miserable and caused their neighbours to think poorly of them.
“We had fun in high school but there is nothing true about that movie. Yet, I am having to deal with it all the time,” said Floyd, who works at a car dealership in Huntsville, Texas, where the men went to high school.
Ernest Freeman, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, said Slater has also had problems because people make assumptions he takes illegal drugs.
Slater runs a construction and remodelling company and Wooderson works in the technology sector. Both men also still live in Huntsville.
Linklater’s agent did not immediately return a message Saturday seeking comment.
The suit was filed in New Mexico because it has a longer statute of limitations than other states for claims of defamation and false light, lawyers said.
― Huk-L, Tuesday, 12 October 2004 13:53 (twenty-one years ago)
"false light" sounds quite poetic, for a lawsuit.
I wonder if these men have ever considered moving away from the town where they all grew up.
― sgs (sgs), Tuesday, 12 October 2004 13:58 (twenty-one years ago)
Surely there's some kind of time limit on this kind of thing. It's been more than 10 years!
― Madchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 12 October 2004 14:34 (twenty-one years ago)
Have they only just thought of this?Well, you know, their attention wandered. What with all the perfectly legal drugs and everything.
― Liz :x (Liz :x), Tuesday, 12 October 2004 14:39 (twenty-one years ago)
Thats what I like about these lawsuits, I keep gettin older they stay the same age.
― Velveteen Bingo (Chris V), Tuesday, 12 October 2004 14:41 (twenty-one years ago)
It sounds like they had a decent argument (he used our names!) and then went nuts (people come up asking us for autographs... even though we don't look like Matthew McConaughey, don't dress like that and share common surnames with thousands of people).
― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Tuesday, 12 October 2004 15:02 (twenty-one years ago)
Good god, Bingo wins hands down.
Waiting eleven years = I mock them thoroughly.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 12 October 2004 15:09 (twenty-one years ago)