Netflix’s ‘Outer Banks’ plot was stolen from NC English teacher’s novel, lawsuit says
Update: A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit on Tuesday, May 25, 2021, finding a lack of substantial similarities between the two works.
A high school English teacher in North Carolina has accused the creators of the popular treasure-hunting Netflix series “Outer Banks” of stealing the story line straight from the pages of his young adult novel.
In a copyright infringement lawsuit filed just before Christmas, Kevin Wooten — an English and creative writing teacher who lives in Hamptonville, North Carolina — called the series “strikingly similar” to his 2016 book “Pennywise: The Hunt for Blackbeard’s Treasure!” Hamptonville is about an hour north of Charlotte on Interstate 77.
His lawsuit alleges the creators of “Outer Banks” copied the novel’s setting, characters and plot. It asks a federal judge in Georgia to award him punitive damages, royalty fees and a credit line at the end of each episode attributing the story to him.
“Such blatant adoption, duplication, and striking similarities of the most important aspects of the novel are readily apparent to the ordinary observer,” the lawsuit states.
A representative for Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday, but Wooten’s attorneys at the intellectual property law firm Vivid IP in Atlanta told McClatchy News he is a “fan” of the show.
“As a creative writing instructor for young adults, Mr. Wooten teaches his students every day about the importance of keeping their writings original and protecting them, so it’s natural that he would assert his copyrights to his novel once he discovered the infringement,” his attorneys said in a statement. “Mr. Wooten has contacted the creators of ‘Outer Banks’ about hopefully reaching an amicable resolution and looks forward to the release of season two.”
“Outer Banks” premiered April 15 on Netflix and was largely filmed in South Carolina, The Island Packet previously reported.
Despite a geography snafu that involved a ferry running between the Outer Banks and Chapel Hill, the show was a hit, and Netflix confirmed production for a second season was underway in July.
Wooten’s novel, however, was self-published a few years before “Outer Banks” debuted on the streaming platform.
According to his lawsuit filed Dec. 21 in the Northern District of Georgia, Wooten published “Pennywise: The Hunt for Blackbeard’s Treasure!” on May 8, 2016 and has sold hundreds of digital and print editions. It is listed for sale in paperback and Kindle versions on Amazon.
The book — like the Netflix series — is a “fictional adventure/mystery story” that takes place on the Outer Banks and centers around a group of young adults who “overcome dangerous and challenging obstacles in following clues to a hidden treasure recovered from a fabled shipwreck,” the complaint states.
Wooten laid out the reported similarities in a seven-page chart attached to the complaint, which include a group of four “treasure hunters,” a rich benefactor also searching for the treasure, a near-identical series of clues and “a corrupt member of law enforcement.”
In addition to both works being set on the Outer Banks, documents accompanying the lawsuit state that two of the main protagonists have “similar upbringings” with “absent parents” while a third character chucks his academic aspirations to help find the treasure. Both groups also discover the first clue in a round object at the bottom of the ocean — a pocket watch in Wooten’s book and a compass in “Outer Banks” — and ultimately find the treasure only to have it stolen again.
Wooten’s attorneys said it was likely the creators of “Outer Banks” had access to a copy of Wooten’s novel, pointing to an April article in the Wilmington Star-News in which co-creators Daniel Burke, Jonas Pate and Joshua Pate told the newspaper the series was inspired by “third-party adventure novels” as well as their time living in Wilmington.
The court docket does not show that Netflix and the show’s creators have responded to the complaint.
This story was originally published December 28, 2020 at 12:21 PM with the headline "Netflix’s ‘Outer Banks’ plot was stolen from NC English teacher’s novel, lawsuit says."
