Why anyone would publicly admit that "The Hangover 2" was based on his own life is a mystery, but that's exactly what's happening in a lawsuit filed by an aspiring actor and filmmaker who claims the movie's makers lifted the plot from his life experiences.
Michael Alan Rubin filed suit in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California Wednesday against, Warner Bros., director Todd Phillips, the "Hangover 2" writers and his (now presumably ex-) wife, Tamayo Otsuki, alleging that they conspired to steal the movie's plot from Rubin's own experiences, as well as a movie treatment he was working on.
According to Rubin, he and Otsuki traveled to Japan in 2007 to get married in a traditional Japanese ceremony, but soon had a falling out during their honeymoon in Thailand and India, after Otsuki started complaining about Rubin's financial condition.
The friction came to a head when Otsuki refused to share her hotel room with him, so Rubin took off for the vacation spot of Goa, where he scored acting jobs and worked on a movie treatment, "Micki and Kirin," about his experiences with his wife.
Rubin's suit goes on to state that, when he saw "Hangover 2," the similarities between the movie's plot and his own story were too numerous to mention.
"The plot and theme of 'Hangover 2' is copied from the treatment 'Mickey and Kirin' and also from the private real life incident of the plaintiff, because the protagonist in 'Hangover 2' travels from the United States to an Asian country to marry his Asian girlfriend," the suit asserts.
Sure, guy goes to Asia to marry girl — totally unique situation that can only happen once.
According to the suit, Otsuki has ties to the makers of "Hangover 2," which is presumably how they came across the allegedly pilfered storyline.
Rubin is also suing because the movie doesn't correctly follow his story. The suit lists defamation among its counts, citing several "false and defamatory" statements" in the movie about him, including "Being portrayed/described as person who under the influence of drugs, proposed a male-to-female transsexual prostitute to marry him and ended up having anal sexed by [sic] the transsexual prostitute."
The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, to be determined by a jury trial. Rubin also wants the certificate of copyright registration for the the movie yanked, and is asking for injunctive relief "preventing the sale or disposition of 'Hangover 2' which is the result of the defendants' copyright infringement.
Between Rubin's suit and the recently settled suit over Ed Helms' face tattoo, "Hangover 2"'s makers can be forgiven for having a little bit of a headache right now.
And this isn't even mentioning a lawsuit stemming from an accident on the "Hangover 2" set.
Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to TheWrap's request for comment.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.
