Robert and Donald Hughes have filed a federal lawsuit alleging Fox stole their idea for Prison Break. In the 1960′s, the Hughes brothers were on the run after Donald helped his falsely accused 16 year old brother escape from prison. Robert and Donald compiled a manuscript of their experiences and in 2001, had their agent send it in to Fox. Fox wasn’t interested. Today, the two brothers are living on disability and Social Security.

They are seeking “unspecified damages and costs” from Fox and the executive producers claiming that if they sold their manuscript now, people would think they were copying Prison Break.

“Prison Break,” in its second season, is set in contemporary time. But the Hughes brothers say they’ve noted more than 30 places, names or events that are strikingly similar to those of their manuscript.

These similarities include two brothers, a prison, prison guards, other inmates, escaping, running and hiding. They do admit that there are some differences such as tattooing the prison blueprints on themselves, escaping through a toilet, escaping with a bunch of other prisoners, being really smart, knowing the location of five million dollars, being framed as part of a presidential conspiracy and a lot of other “small” things. Besides that, EVERYTHING is the same. The uncanniness is almost spooky.

William Fitchtner who played the in-between alien on Invasion and was in Ultraviolet, one of the worst movies this year, isn’t out of a job yet. He has signed on to play the federal agent assigned to chase Michael and Lincoln in Prison Break.

I do admit that Invasion was getting a little slow, but I am still bitter it got cancelled and shows like The Simple Life survive on other networks. This is a lot like how Fox managed to kill one of the best comedies on television. No, I’m not talking about CSI: Miami (god knows why that’s still on), I’m talking about Arrested Development.

Source