Rockstar Reportedly Threatened To Sue TV Show Over LA Noire Name, Take-Two Denies Claims

Director and writer Frank Darabont, best known for Green Mile and The Walking Dead TV series, claimed that Rockstar Games threatened to sue him and the TNT network for creating a TV show called LA Noir, which Rockstar thought that was too close for comfort with their video game LA Noire. However, Take-Two Interactive, which owns Rockstar, has denied the claims made my Darabont.

In an interview with io9, Darabont says that Rockstar "threatened to sue the shit out of [him], TNT, every company that actually ever worked in Hollywood. And they have the billions of dollars to back it up, apparently." Because of that, Darabont says that he's changing the title of his new TV show from LA Noir to Lost Angels. The show is set in 1947 Los Angeles, and it will star Jon Bernthal.

While the previous name, setting, and timeframe of the new TV series seems dangerously close to Rockstar's LA Noire video game, Darabont says that the TV show is based on a novel titled "LA Noir," and has nothing to do with Rockstar's game. However, while Darabont claims that he was threatened with a lawsuit, Take-Two said that nothing of the sort happened.

Speaking with Joystiq, the game publishing company claims that they only approached TNT in order to "express concern over confusion between the properties," but say that they have never approached Darabont. The actions that led Darabont to change the name of the show are completely unrelated, according to Take-Two.

[via Joystiq]