American filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan has been sued by Italy-born director Francesca Gregorini, who alleged that his show Servant stole the theme and key elements from her 2013 independent movie, The Truth About Emanuel. The show streams on Apple TV.
Patrick Arenz, the attorney who is representing Francesca, showed the jury clips of both the movie and the show on Tuesday in federal court in Riverside, Calif, as a part of his opening argument.
He argued that both the projects share striking similarities, as they are both based on a mother who loves and raises a doll as if it were a real baby, and a nanny who supports her in this illusion.
“This is a simple case. There would be no Servant without Emanuel,” Patrick argued with the jury.
M. Night Shyamalan was also present at the trial along with the producer of his show, Taylor Latham, and the head of programming at Apple TV, Matt Cherniss.
Shyamalan’s attorney Brittany Amadi presented the jury with the argument that Tony Basgallop, the British writer who created the series, had started working on Servant way before The Truth About Emanuel released, and no part of the show was taken from the film.
“Ms. Gregorini is seeking a windfall here. She’s seeking 81 million dollars for work she didn’t do. The truth is the creators of Servant do not owe anything to Ms. Gregorini,” Brittany argued.
The Italy-born filmmaker had sued the studio that produced Servant earlier in January 2020 after the series started streaming. The case was then thrown out.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals later revived the case again in 2022, when it found that there was a genuine dispute over the two projects.
The jury will get on the case by watching The Truth About Emanuel and the first three episodes of Servant over the next two weeks, after which Shyamalan will testify along with the other creators of the show.
In order to prove that there was plagiarism, Francesca will have to prove two things – that there is substantial similarity between both the projects, and that and that Shyamalan’s team had access to her film.
The Truth About Emanuel featured Jessica Biel and Kaya Scodelario, and was an entrant at the Sundance Film Festival.
It did not make much money, which is an argument that the defence used in favour of their argument. They showed that the film grossed only 226 dollars in Los Angeles, and just 9 dollars, from one viewer, in Philadelphia.
