Wachowski Brothers stole 'Matrix' idea, scriptwriter sues for damages

"Monday, October 4th 2004 ended a six-year dispute involving Sophia Stewart, the Wachowski Brothers, Joel Silver and Warner Brothers. Stewart's allegations, involving copyright infringement and racketeering, were received and acknowledged by the Central District of California, Judge Margaret Morrow residing.

Stewart, a New Yorker who has resided in Salt Lake City for the past five years, will recover damages from the films, The Matrix I, II and III, as well as The Terminator and its sequels. She will soon receive one of the biggest payoffs in the history of Hollywood, as the gross receipts of both films and their sequels total over 2.5 billion dollars. " (full story at main link)

Wow. This article is over a month old, no word of it in major media sources. Surely Time-Warner owning a huge chunk of media outlets COULDN'T be helping squash news like this?

Comments are rolling in on this topic at Animation Nation.

UPDATE: Oops, I renamed the title of this post, I erroneously tagged it originally that she was being awarded 2.5 billion. That figure was gross receipts from the film, my bad. I'm sure she'll be getting a big pile of cash to wallow around in, though. (If it turns out to be true, that remains to be seen.)

UPDATE: Here is another article on it from AfriDAD (African Inst. for equal rights)

and here is another site about this:

- Sophia Stewart: The Mother of the Matrix (PDF files of the story and court case orders)