Stephanie Meyer, the writer behind the wildly successful Twilight book, is being sued by a former friend for plagiarism--and production on the follow up, New Moon has been halted as a result.
Heidi Stanton, who studied alongside Meyer at Brigham Young University in Utah claims Meyers stole the vampire story from her because it's very similar to a short story she wrote while they were attending college together.
Stanton filed her lawsuit against Meyer in Utah last Tuesday, April 14th alleging idea infringement. She states in the papers, "Quite frankly, I was shocked when I began watching the movie with my husband last week. I immediately told him that she got that idea from me! I wrote a fictional short story with the same ideas when we were in college together."
Meyer’s claims the storyline of the popular series came to her in a dream back in 2003. She completed Twilight three months later.
Production of New Moon has since been "put on hold" until the case is resolved. It's scheduled for release at the end of the year, so we hope they speed this process along.
Anytime you start making a ton of money, people in your past come out of the woodwork. It's a part of being a celebrity, and Stephanie definitely had a cult like following thanks to her popular series of books. We'll keep you guys posted on the status of production!
