'God's Not Dead' Sued for Copyright Infringement

God's Not Dead was a surprise hit in 2014, but its story didn't exactly wow critics. Regardless, a screenwriter wants to get credit - and some money - for the story idea that she says she wrote and that producers of the movie stole from her. A new lawsuit seeks $100 million in damages for copyright infringement from the movie's producers.

Writer Kelly Kullberg says that she originated the story on which God's Not Dead was based in her 2006 autobiographical book, Finding God Beyond Harvard: The Quest for Veritas. Kullberg developed a screen play based on the book in which a college student debates an atheist professor about the existence of God, and she says the ideas in that screenplay were clearly lifted to create the plot of God's Not Dead.

Kullberg's suit lays out a possible path that the infringement took, from a religious group at Harvard to a national Christian entertainment organization to a producer at Pure Flix, which eventually produced God's Not Dead.

God's Not Dead earned a surprising $9 million during its opening weekend in 2014 and went on to earn a total of $60 million at the box office, a huge win for a movie with a production budget of only $2 million. That win would be wiped out, though, if Kullberg is awarded the full amount she's asking for in the suit. A sequel to the film, God's Not Dead 2, was much less successful earlier this year, earning just $20.7 million during its theatrical run.