You remember Kevin Costner, right? He used to be a huge star with hits such as The Untouchables, The Bodyguard, JFK, Dances with Wolves, etc. but is probably best remembered for the commercial flop Waterworld which, “in the humble opinion of this writer, ruined the actor’s career and left him in millions of dollars worth of debt” (I’ve been instructed to enclose that last bit in quotations for legal reasons).

Well in the wake of Capcom copping a lawsuit from George Romero’s MKR group for copyright infringement with Dead Rising, the word on the street is that Kevin Costner’s “people” are preparing to launch a multi-million dollar case against Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo for the plagiarism of the actor’s titular role in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

Doesn’t make sense? Not at first, but even though I was skeptical myself I’ve gotta admit the man has a point: while the original The Legend of Zelda was released in 1986 on the NES, it wasn’t until 1998 that a true, fully realised 3D Link appeared in the classic Ocarina of Time. 1991 & 1998: the same seven year period in-between the previous 2D SNES game A Link to the Past and the N64′s Ocarina of Time! (The Game Boy Zelda game released in 1993, Link’s Awakening, apparently does not count).

According to Costner’s spokeswoman:

“Nintendo not only knowingly copied our client’s appearance in his 1991 blockbuster without adequate compensation, they also refused to answer courteous calls from our client during that period to amicably settle the matter out of court. The best Shigeru Miyamoto could muster in the form of a response was to simply leave a message for his secretary to pass on: ‘I loved you in Field of Dreams‘. Completely unacceptable. It is therefore in the best interests of our client, and of the principles of legal justice in today’s increasingly profit-driven society, for us to launch this action“.

Phew. When I asked Costner’s spokeswoman about how much money ‘her client’ was after, I was simply told “a large amount.” Scary. I followed this up by asking whether this whole thing was merely a case of Costner clutching at straws in a petty attempt to escape the repo man, upon which I was abruptly carried away by three ‘bodyguards’ and escorted off the premises. I seem to recall that the Whitney Houston song “I will always love you” was playing in the background at the time. Either way, it looks as if the Dead Rising lawsuit has set a dangerous precedent for the video game industry and this could very well be just the beginning.

In saying all that though, the likeness of Costner and Link is a bit of a stretch and there’s no doubt that Nintendo will battle this lawsuit to the death, but to paraphrase Bryan Adams’ number 1 hit song from Prince of Thieves, “You can’t tell [Kevin], it’s not worth fighting for.”