The Shape of Water has the most Academy Award nominations¹ this year with 13, including Best Picture. Now, just in time for Oscar voting, a new lawsuit² could threaten the film's chances.

今年《水形物语》获得了最多项（13项）奥斯卡金像奖提名，其中包括最佳影片奖。如今，正值奥斯卡奖投票评选期，一项新的诉讼可能会威胁到这部影片的获奖机会。

The son of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Paul Zindel filed a lawsuit Wednesday, claiming that The Shape of Water ripped off his father's 1969 play Let Me Hear You Whisper. In the play, a cleaning lady in a lab attempts to rescue a dolphin that's slated³ to have its brain dissected⁴ .

普利策奖获得者保罗?津德尔的儿子于星期三提起诉讼，控告《水形物语》抄袭了他父亲1969年的剧作《让我听到你的低语》。在这部剧中，一名实验室的女清洁工试图拯救一只大脑将被解剖的海豚。

In The Shape of Water, a janitor⁵ (Sally Hawkins) falls in love with a humanoid water creature (Doug Jones) that’s being held captive in a military lab.

而《水形物语》则主要讲述了一名清洁工（莎莉?霍金斯饰）爱上了一个被囚禁在军用实验室的水生人形生物（道格·琼斯饰）。

In the lawsuit, Zindel claims the “Defendants⁶ have plainly incorporated numerous copyright protectible [sic] literary elements,” and that The Shape of Water producer Daniel Kraus knowingly cribbed his father's work:

在诉讼中，津德尔称“被告方显然结合了大量受版权保护的文学元素”，而且《水形物语》的制片人丹尼尔·克劳斯故意剽窃了他父亲的作品：

KRAUS is both on record as an admirer of Zindel's work, and came up with the “idea” for the Picture the very year Zindel's Play first aired on national television. These and other telling details from the writing and production of the Picture strongly evidence that Defendants knowingly infringed⁷ Zindel's Play.

克劳斯曾公开表示自己欣赏津德尔的作品，而且他是在津德尔的作品首次在国家电视台播出的那年提出了这部影片的“构思”。这些情况以及这部影片创作和拍摄过程中的其他颇有说服力的细节有力地证明了被告方故意抄袭津德尔的作品。

But the Shape of Water's distributor Fox Searchlight isn't having any of it:

然而，《水形物语》的发行方福克斯探照灯影业公司不接受以上所有指控：

“These claims from Mr. Zindel's estate⁸ are baseless, wholly without merit, and we will be filing a motion to dismiss. Furthermore, the estate's complaint seems timed to coincide with the Academy Award voting cycle in order to pressure our studio to quickly settle. Instead, we will vigorously defend ourselves and, by extension, this groundbreaking and original film.”

“津德尔先生关于版权的主张是毫无依据的，我们会提议驳回的。而且，这起版权投诉似乎特意选择在奥斯卡金像奖投票评选期提出，以便向我们公司施压使我们尽快解决。但是，我们会积极为自己辩护，以此证明我们这部作品是原创的新电影。”

The chances of Zindel's lawsuit derailing The Shape of Water‘s Oscar showing are slim. The terrain⁹ for intellectual property is often too murky¹⁰ for accusers like Zindel to build a case with any traction¹¹.

津德尔的起诉干扰《水形物语》奥斯卡奖评选的可能性很小。对于像津德尔这样想要提起相关内容牵涉诉讼的控告者而言，知识产权领域往往太过于复杂。

A previous claim that del Toro's latest movie stole ideas from a 2015 student film came and went in January. Moreover, accusations¹² of plagiarism¹³ against high-profile films crop up like clockwork every year, especially around this time.

先前在1月份就有一份声明称，德尔·托罗新推出的电影窃取了一位2015级学生的电影构思。此外，对于备受关注的影片，剽窃的控告每年都层出不穷，特别是在这段时期（各大奖项的评选期）。

But hey, maybe more people will read Let Me Hear You Whisper now, so there's that.

不过，嗨，也许更多人现在会去读一下《让我听到你的低语》这部作品，所以这大概就是他们的目的吧。