Army bomb squad leader sues ‘The Hurt Locker’ makers

An Army bomb squad leader who served in Iraq is accusing the makers of the Academy Award-nominated movie “The Hurt Locker” of stealing his identity, cheating him out of box-office profits and falsely portraying him as “a reckless, gung-ho war addict.”

In a federal suit filed Tuesday in New Jersey, Master Sgt. Jeffrey S. Sarver claimed he was the model for the film’s protagonist and even coined the title phrase in describing his life detonating improvised explosive devices. The suit accuses screenwriter Mark Boal, director Kathryn Bigelow and others of defamation, invasion of privacy, fraud and other counts.

The suit slams the movie as “nothing more than the exploitation of a real life honorable, courageous, and long serving member of our country’s armed forces by greedy multi-billion dollar ‘entertainment’ corporations.”

“They’re going to owe him a whole lot of money and recognition,” Sarver’s attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, said at a news conference Wednesday in Southfield, Mich., announcing the suit.

In an interview with The Times on Tuesday, Boal described Sarver, whom he met as an embedded reporter six years ago, as “a brave soldier and good guy,” but he denied that Sarver was the model for main character Will James.

“Like a lot of soldiers, he identifies with the film, but the character I wrote is fictional. The film is a work of fiction inspired by many people’s stories,” Boal said.

The screenwriter spent a month with Sarver’s squad in Iraq in 2004 researching a story published in Playboy the following year. The story prominently featured Sarver, a West Virginia native and Bronze Star recipient. The suit alleges that when Boal later developed a screenplay from the experience, he relied on Sarver’s background, turns of phrase, physical appearance and wartime experiences for the story.

Boal said his screenplay was based on conversations with “easily over 100 soldiers.” He also rejected Sarver’s claim that he originated the term “hurt locker.”

“That’s totally untrue. It would be like coining the phrase ‘live free or die.’ It’s military slang that’s in common usage. I heard it from lots of other people other than him,” Boal said.

Also named in the suit are Playboy Enterprises, the film’s producers and distributor Summit Entertainment. In a statement, Summit said, “We hope for a quick resolution to the claims made by Master Sgt. Sarver.”

harriet.ryan@latimes.com

Times staff writer Patrick Goldstein contributed to this report.