Lawsuit: Window Provides Clear View of Disturbia

How many lawyers did it take to determine that Disturbia was kinda like Rear Window? ('Cause the critics figured it out right away.)

The estate of the man who owned the rights to Rear Window has sued Disturbia producer Steven Spielberg, claiming that the 2007 teen thriller ripped off the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock classic and the short story upon which it was based.

With a $20 million budget, Disturbia was considered a modest hit last year, taking in $80.2 million at the U.S. box office. None of which was shared with the estate of the late Sheldon Abend, who bought the rights to Cornell Woolrich's 1942 story It Had to Be Murder after the author died in 1968, according to the lawsuit.

The original tale of neighborly voyeurism was paid tons of lip service, however.