Joss Whedon, director of the smash hit movie "The Avengers," has a whole list of writing, directing and producing credits to his name. He has also worked before with Drew Goddard, who directed and co-wrote the movie "The Cabin in the Woods."

But now, according to an article by The Hollywood Reporter, they have to defend their 2012 film from a new critic, namely book writer Peter Gallagher (not the same Peter Gallagher from "The O.C."), whose own work previous to the movie bears a strong resemblance to the content in the movie.

Gallagher wrote this book way back in 2006, titled "The Little White Trip," and he undertook a grassroots marketing effort to get it sold. He basically self-published the book and walked along the Venice Beach Boardwalk and the Santa Monica Third Street Promenade trying to sell it. Some bookstores also picked the book up and sold it for him, which led to a successful run, and he ended up ordering about 5,000 more copies of the book, according to the official complaint filed by the plaintiff, The Hollywood Reports states. 

"The Cabin in the Woods" was a project undertaken by Joss Whedon and co-writer Drew Goddard in 2009, three years after the book was published. What strikes the lawsuit as unique is not only the surprisingly similar content, but it was also sold by Gallagher in the same areas where Whedon and Goddard either resided or frequented.

Both works feature a group of three men and two women, trapped in a cabin in the woods and terrorized by monsters who were controlled by mysterious outside forces.

The lawsuit is a scenario that has played out before in many different mediums, which include print, film, television and music. Lionsgate and Whedon's production company Mutant Enemy are also named in the lawsuit.

But as The Huffington Post quickly noted, "The Cabin in the Woods" was initially celebrated as one of the most original horror movies in years. None of the defendants have responded to requests for comment by the Huffington Post.