Director M Night Shyamalan went on trial on Tuesday (14 January) over allegations that he plagiarised from an independent film for his Apple TV + series Servant.
The $81m (£66m) lawsuit brought by Italian director Francesca Gregorini accuses Shyamalan of taking key elements from her 2013 film The Truth about Emanuel.
His psychological horror series, Servant, follows the story of a couple who hire an eighteen-year-old girl to help them look after a child. It transpires that the child is dead, and has been replaced by a reborn doll, which the traumatised mother still believes is alive.
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Gregorini alleges that the film shares substantial similarities to hers. She originally sued in January 2000, shortly after the series was released. The case was thrown out by a federal judge in the first instance, but was revived in 2022 by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals who found a genuine dispute over whether the works were in fact “substantially similar”.
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The jury in the case will be required to watch both The Truth about Emanuel and the first three episodes of Servant, back-to-back before the attorneys of both respective parties make their case.
That poor jury.
I was going to say that The Servant wasn’t that bad - particularly at the beginning.
Then I read the Wikipedia synopsis of the other one. Holy shit, that looks like a mess. May watch it anyway out of morbid curiosity and masochism.
I wonder if there will be a twist at the end
I’m scared on what reborn doll means
They are eerily realistic looking dolls.
Oh that’s better than I imagine. Thanks I was a bit scared to look it up.
There’s a Wikipedia entry that gives details and some photos.
She originally sued in January 2000
suing 19 years before the show came out is pretty impressive
That’s the twist. People are doing “pre-suing” now, so get their papers filed early.
I got nothing of value to add. So
The happening was one of the worst pieces of shit I’ve ever had to see.
That is all.
