Caspian Tredwell-Owen

Caspian Tredwell-Owen wrote a screenplay that, after being read by Steven Spielberg, was purchased by DreamWorks for a million dollars. The screenplay was re-written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and became the 2005 film "The Island". [http://www.filmsinreview.com/Film%20Reviews/island-vic.htm]

Whether or not Tredwell-Owen actually wrote the million-dollar script, however, is a matter of some dispute. A lawsuit, filed in New York by Robert Fiveson, writer/director of the B classic "The Clonus Horror", [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078062/] suggested that Tredwell-Owen's script was in fact lifted from Fiveson's sci-fi film, released in 1979. Further, "The Island" script was strikingly similar to a screenplay previously submitted to "Spider-Man" producer Avi Arad [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0498278/news] --"Spider-Man" producing partner of Ian Bryce, who later produced "The Island"--entitled "Astrocorp", written by screenwriter Luke Shanahan and psychiatrist Dr. Michael Alan Schwartz.

In addition to his "The Island" credit, Tredwell-Owen is the screenwriter of record of the universally panned "Beyond Borders", which "Variety"'s Todd Mccarthy called "high-minded claptrap" and New York Times reviewer Elvis Mitchell likened to "watching someone trying to dry his hands with sandpaper." [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=284691 ]