content: There are a lot of rumors that she won a settlement against the Wachowskis and 20th Century Fox, but these are not true. She won a settlement against her former attorney. None of the defendants have ever made a comment. Stewart claims that in 1981 she sent a 6 page summary of her screenplay "The Third Eye" to 20th Century and never heard back. In 1986, the Wachowskis did an open call for sci-fi stories that were supposed to be used for a comic book series. Stewart submitted her screen play again. She never heard back, but said she immediately recognized that they'd stolen her work, when there was no comic book series, but instead the Matrix film. I don't know if she is right or not. If the Wachowskis were using a false premise to get people to submit stories that they were going to turn into a film, that is horseshit. But I've never seen any proof this was the case. What I do know is that the concept of the "brain in a vat" / living in a simulation is typical of sci-fi. Considering that the brothers have said Beaudrillard was an important inspiration, you only have to read 'Simulation and Simulacra' to see how short of a leap it is from his ideas about modern society to The Matrix. You just add a little gnostic Christianity, a little A.I. apocalypticism, and a little of the 90s dystopian goth to some Rob Zombie and martial arts - viola, The Matrix. I don't even think these movies explored the truly interesting possibilities. Anyway, Stewart also claimed that the creators of Terminator stole their ideas from her too. To me, this is very discrediting to her story. Kirk has said more than once he got the idea from an Outer Limits episode, and that episode was based on work by Harlan Ellison from the 50s. A.I. doom and simulated reality are a tough thing to claim as intellectual property. For fucks' sake, at this point these things are just part of the collective consciousness. All that said, I'm not on a mission to defend the brothers. They're mentally fucked wackos, and the last two movies in the trilogy are almost impossible to watch. Watch the quasi-orgy at the beginning of Revolutions. Zion, a cave full of nig  616  gers grinding. Seriously. The entire concept of trying to marry this still massively technological society with some primitive 'children of the earth' shit is just ridiculous. Yeah, they have computer systems in the Matrix for controlling all of their hover ship traffic and also the infrastructure to produce enough giant mech armor for an army, but they get together nearly naked in a cave for their leaders' speeches, and then dance to jembe drums. Fucking hell.