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Voici un article de James Hill de BET.com intitulé "Finding Neo: The Controversial Case of Sophia Stewarten" en anglais, quelqu'un pourrait -il le traduire en français?



Finding Neo: The Controversial Case of Sophia Stewart


By James Hill, BET.com Staff Writer

Posted May 4, 2005 -- Sophia Stewart knows something is wrong.

Even as most of us walk, talk and sleep through our days, Stewart is doggedly looking for signs, amassing clues and pointing her finger toward a conspiracy she claims is hidden in plain sight.

She says she first became aware of that conspiracy on March 31, 1999, when she paid to see “The Matrix.” Two hours later, she left the theater screaming, confused and overwhelmed with a sense of dread.

What Stewart saw on the screen was not the same insanely hip, nouveau spiritual kung fu fest that most saw. Instead, she says she saw her stolen work, blazing 30 feet high.

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”I know my work when I see it. The Wachowski brothers ripped me the hell off,” she says. “They stole special effects from me. They owe me three Oscars for special effects. When the agents divide into different men – that came from me. When Neo jumps into the bad guys body – that’s mine.”

Stewart, a New York City native now living in Salt Lake City, Utah, argues that “The Matrix” could not exist if not for her book, “The Third Eye,” a manuscript she wrote back in 1981.

Both deal with evil machines enslaving mankind via false hopes of utopia. Both tell the tale of a lone hero, counseled by a wise older Black woman, who is prophesied to rise up against the machines. However, only one of these has gone on to become a global phenomenon, with box office receipts tallying close to $600 million.

Stewart says she wants justice.

In April 1999, Stewart filed a letter of complaint directly to Warner Brothers, who distributed the entire “Matrix” series, stating, “I demand to be reasonably compensated for the use of my book and all work that [has] been copied and sold.”

Warner Brothers responded to Stewart in a letter dated April 14, 1999, requesting a copy of “The Third Eye,” any copyright registration and, most crucial, evidence that anyone involved with “The Matrix” had access to Stewart’s book.

Here’s where Alice enters the looking glass.

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While a student at the University of Southern California Film School, Stewart wrote the manuscript for The Third Eye, a nine-chapter sci-fi epic she says she submitted to 20th Century Fox that same year. Stewart’s lawyer, Jonathan Lubell, says he can produce evidence proving the correspondence between his client and the studio. “When I first submitted to 20th Century Fox in 1981 they went crazy and wanted more. They lost their minds!” Stewart says. “This was my first time ever submitting any of my work. I had an idea of what kind of phenomenal writer I was from my teachers.”

A self-proclaimed child prodigy and scholar of sacred geometry and numerology, Stewart says she was influenced by 1977’s “Star Wars.”

“I thought Lucas was this great director,” she says. “He was my inspiration to send it to Fox (which also distributed the film).”

However, despite the studio’s initial reaction to the work – which she submitted before it was copyrighted – Stewart says she was given the run-around. “They said they were interested in buying my book and had me send it three different times. Eventually, they told me that the interested parties had left the company, and I forgot all about it.”

Down but not out, Stewart says she saw new hope when she stumbled across an ad in a magazine: Andy and Larry Wachowski were asking for science- fiction scripts to make into a comic book.

“I sent them the entire work, the treatment, original draft, synopsis, makings of, my graphic illustrations -- everything. I never heard from them, and didn’t know they had used my work until I saw ‘The Matrix’ in 1999,” she says.

But it doesn’t stop there.

After seeing “The Matrix” and sending letters to Warner Brothers, Stewart says she contacted the Salt Lake City branch of the FBI on June 10, 1999 as well. The FBI, which does investigate copyright infringement, looked into the case and as soon as 2001 replied back to Stewart with startling new details.

“It seems,” she says investigators told her, “that you might have also have written ‘The Terminator.’”

When contacted by BET.com, the bureau declined to “confirm or deny” the claim. But Stewart says the FBI told her that it had uncovered evidence that “The Third Eye” could also have been the narrative backbone for the “The Terminator” series, another multi-million-dollar trilogy.

The similarities, as told by Stewart, are striking.

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In Stewart’s book, the first part is about a woman named Isis who is the prophesied mother of a man who will save mankind from the machines. The future rebels go back in time to save the baby and make sure he’s born.

The first “Terminator” also follows a woman, believed to be carrying the future leader of human rebels, and the time-traveling soldier who tries to ensure the boy’s birth by fending off an evil cyborg. So why did Stewart, an admitted sci-fi junkie, need the FBI to point out the connection?

”I never saw ‘Terminator 1.’ I don’t see every movie,” she says.

So, with literally billions at stake, why hasn’t Stewart been paid? Her case, first filed in April of 2003 in the Central District Court of California, is still pending. There has been much back and forth between Stewart, Warner Brothers and the courts, but as it stands the trail date has tentative been set for July 12.

Arguing that Stewart’s case is without merit, Bruce Isaacs, an attorney for Warner Brothers, filed a motion on Sept. 27, 2004 to have it dismissed. The judge, Margaret Morrow, dismissed the complaint.

“I have worked on many cases like this. It is not uncommon, but they lose the case because they can’t establish access,” says Isaacs. “I have looked her lawyers in the eyes and asked them to produce proof of this Wachowski ad. I don’t believe these documents even exist.”

But Warner Brothers and the Wachowski brothers aren’t the only defendants under Isaacs’ belt. Also named in Stewart’s lawsuit is 20th Century Fox and “Terminator” creator/producers James Cameron and Gale Ann Hurd – a curious list of names considering that Fox didn’t officially produce or create “The Terminator” films.

As Isaac’s points out, “FOX had nothing to do with ‘Terminator.’ She doesn’t have any proof to show that she sent her script to Cameron or Gale Ann Hurd. Cameron has no idea who she is.”

But a search on the Internet Movie Database confirms that Fox distributed the 1984 film in Germany. What is not clear is whether this distribution is a theatrical or home video. Stewart’s lawyer says it doesn’t make a difference because he has evidence that “FOX was one of the studios that worked with Warner Brothers. They got a piece of the Terminator.” Further research shows a closer link between the two companies as the “Matrix” series was filmed at Fox’s Australia studio as was the latest “Star Wars” trilogy and many other films.

When asked why he hadn’t produced the Wachowski ad, arguably the most damning evidence against Warner Brothers and the directors, Lubell replied, “We haven’t found it.” So what if the ad never appears? “If no ad, it won’t be a disaster. We will put the Wachowskis themselves on the stand and call for them to produce certain documents. We will cross- examine them,” Lubell says.

Meanwhile, Stewart seems to think the proof is out there. In fact, somebody might already have downloaded it. “They cut the hell out of the original ‘Matrix,’ and I know the uncut version is floating around somewhere.” In fact, Stewart says that she and several others saw this uncut version in theaters on the film’s opening day. If it does exist, it could be the vital piece of evidence that proves her book is the source.

”For one, the original had a ‘Star Wars’-like text introduction which came verbatim from my book, OK? The sentinels had one eye instead of several, just like the illustrations I sent them.”

Between the rampant bootleg market in Asia and eyewitness accounts -- not to mention an alleged 1999 article from the United Kingdom in which the Wachowski brothers acknowledge adding the scrolling text -- Stewart is confident the evidence will show up.

Where does all of her confidence come from? ”I have the gift of prophecy,” Stewart says, sounding a lot like the “Matrix” Oracle, a character she says she tailored after herself. “There are no accidents; there are no mistakes.”

Source: http://www.bet.com/Entertainment/sophiastewartmatrix.htm?Page=1