Los Angeles, Feb 6 (IANS): Hollywood actor Tom Cruise has been sued for $1 billion by screenwriter Timothy Patrick McLanahan for the script of 2011 movie "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol".

McLanahan filed legal documents in December claiming the script of the movie came from his script "Head On". Paramount Pictures is also named in the suit, reports radaronline.com.

"In 1998 I had written a screenplay called Head On. After submitting it to the U.S. Copyright Office, Head On received a copyright certificate protecting its material and author from unauthorized use," McLanahan wrote in legal documents obtained by Radar.

The writer then detailed the trail the script went through, starting with William Morris Agency, which sent it to CAA(Creative Artists Agency), where Cruise, 51, is a client.

McLanahan is claiming his script was put in front of Cruise's agent Rick Nicita, who is married to the star's production partner Paula Wagner.

In 2011 when "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" came out, McLanahan thought it seemed familiar.

"I immediately recognised that the scripts for this movie had been illegally written and produced from Head On's 1998 copyright," the writer claimed in documents.

McLanahan came to the $1 billion amount after adding up ticket sales ($694,710,000), DVD and blue ray sales ($144.5 million), and movie rentals and subscription sales and budget ($145 million), according to the site.