Mr. Night Shyamalan accused of plagiarism for his Servant series

Director Francesca Gregorini is claiming $81 million for copying elements of her film.

The lawsuit against the director’s series Mr. Night Shyamalanavailable on Apple TV+, began this Tuesday. The cause: the creators would have used key elements of The Truth about Emmanuelan independent film from Francesca Gregoriniwith Kaya Scodelario and Jessica Biel, released in 2013. The Italian-American director features a young woman who agrees to keep the realistic doll of her neighbor, a mother who recently lost her daughter.

Those who saw Servant will immediately notice similarities. Dorothy Turner (Lauren Ambrose) also lost her child, and uses a doll resembling a real baby for therapeutic purposes. A nanny (Nell Tiger Free) is also hired to take care of the baby, thus making herself complicit in the mother’s madness. Gregorini’s lawyer, Patrick Arenz, told jurors: “There would be no Servant without Emanuel »reports Variety. The plaintiff claims $81 million.

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On the defense side, we find M.Night Shyamalan, accompanied by producer Taylor Latham, screenwriter Tony Basgallop, and head of programming at Apple TV+, Matt Cherniss. Attorney Brittany Armadi said Tony Basgallop began writing the series a year before the release of The Truth about Emmanuel. “The truth is that the creators of Servant owe nothing to Ms. Gregorini”she says. For his part, Arenz claims that the story between the mother and the doll was added to the script a year after the film’s release.

The type of toy used in these two works are dolls “reborn”. These models have existed since the early 2000s, and the defense uses this argument to contradict the accusations made against the series. “You cannot own a fact or an idea”says Armadi. The whole difficulty will be knowing whether or not there has been an infringement of copyright.

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