Fox and Disney Escape Screenwriter’s ‘Ad Astra’ Copyright Suit

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. and Walt Disney Co. didn’t infringe a writer’s pitched screenplay to make the 2019 Brad Pitt film “Ad Astra,” a California federal court said.

Writer Phillip Madison Jones failed to demonstrate that the movie’s creators had access to his “Cosmic Force” script before making “Ad Astra” or that the works were substantially similar, the US District Court for the Central District of California said in an order granting the defendants’ motion for summary judgment. The court also rejected breach of implied contract claims from the pitch as untimely and on the merits.

The Nov. 28 ...