Apple TV+ 'Servant' copyright suit will be heard

An appeals court has ruled that the director of the 2013 film "The Truth About Emanuel" may proceed with her lawsuit against Apple and filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan.

Initially filed in early 2020 by Francesca Gregorini, writer and director of "The Truth About Emanuel," the suit alleged Apple TV+ series "Servant" not only stole the plot of the film but also aped production and cinematography choices.

Both works center around a mother who cares for a doll as though it were a real child and later begins to form strong bonds with a nanny hired to care for it.

The case was dismissed in May of 2020, when Judge John F. Walter said that "Servant" was not similar enough to "Emanuel."

However, an appeals court has ruled in favor of Gregorini. Tuesday's riling says that the earlier dismissal was "improper" as "reasonable minds could differ on the issue of substantial similarity."

In the initial suit, Gregorini demanded damages, an injunction against further production, a recall of any inventory of the infringing material, supervised destruction of any inventory, disgorgement of all proceeds, and punitive damages.

9 Comments

Xed 2796 comments · 4 Years

About 2 years ago

Correct me—in detail—f you think I'm wrong, but the notion that you can't use "a mother who cares for a doll as if it were lifelike is not a concept someone can claim to have sole use of. I've certainly scene it used elsewhere.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1392190/Grieving-women-buy-lifelike-reborn-baby-dolls-help-mourn-loss.html

Skobie1kanobie 2 comments · 2 Years

If that movie is as good as Servant, I’ll have to watch it. This is one of my favourite shows running right now

highframerate 40 comments · 2 Years

Xed said:

Correct me—in detail—f you think I'm wrong, but the notion that you can't use "a mother who cares for a doll as if it were lifelike is not a concept someone can claim to have sole use of. I've certainly scene it used elsewhere.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1392190/Grieving-women-buy-lifelike-reborn-baby-dolls-help-mourn-loss.html

Yeah, it is actually a somewhat common trope. If anything it is far more likely that this was the inspiration - https://wiki.evageeks.org/Kyoko_Zeppelin_Soryu - because it was something that people have actually seen and influenced a ton of stuff (including the Hollywood films "Pacific Rim" and Guardians of the Galaxy 2). The chances of it being influenced by an indie film that was only shown at Sundance and was trashed by critics is pretty much nil. Another thing: the thing with the doll is the only point of similarity. Everything else is entirely different.

If anyone had the right to sue, it would have been the makers of "The Skeleton Key" as "Get Out" was ... well just see this and decide for yourself (and this YouTuber is FAR from the only one to come to that conclusion): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNl0MLGKil0 and see.

Part of me thinks that this is just an attempt on the director's part to get publicity to kick-start her career.

ITGUYINSD 533 comments · 5 Years

From Wikipedia:

On July 21, 2020, the court ordered Francesca Gregorini to pay the defendants' attorneys' fees of $162,467.30. The court emphasized the objective unreasonableness of her claims and derided her attempt to twist two highly dissimilar works into similarity.

After reading the plot of this film, I can't see how she could possibly win on appeals. I wonder if she ever paid the defendants in the first case?

AnotherBloke 6 comments · 3 Years

Are previous comment intentionally ignoring the sentence "the suit alleged Apple TV+ series "Servant" not only stole the plot of the film but also aped production and cinematography choices"?

Maybe read the whole appeal before siding either way?

https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/20-55664.pdf