Late last month we learned that Summit Entertainment plans to release the Twilight in Forks: The Saga of the Real Town documentary on March 20th (the same day as the New Moon DVD). However, another company, Topics Entertainment, is attempting to steal a bit of Summit’s thunder by debuting its own doc, entitled Forks: Bitten by Twilight, on March 16th. As you can imagine, this isn’t sitting well with Summit … or its legal department.
According to The Hollywood Reporters’s THR, Esq., this past Monday Summit filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Summit is suing for trademark and copyright infringement. The basis for the copyright claim is that ‘Forks: Bitten’ allegedly includes reproduced content from the ‘Twilight’ movies, including the image of misty woods shown [below].
What apparently happened is that before Heckelsville Media sold Summit the rights to its Twilight in Forks, it shopped the property around to others and showed a one-sheet to Topics Entertainment, a Washington-based multimedia giant that typically produces educational videos.
Topics then made its own documentary, allegedly incorporating the Twilight name and font in a similar manner with a quote from author Stephenie Meyer: “And there, right where I wanted it to be, was a tiny town called ‘Forks’.”
We’re not sure how it’s all going to play out, but for now you can pre-order either or both of the documentaries from the EvilShop and then wait and see which one arrives in your mailbox.