M Night Shyamalan cleared of copyright infringement in $81m trial over Apple series
Director M. Night Shyamalan has been cleared of all charges after he was accused of plagiarising from an independent film for his Apple TV + series Servant.
A federal judge ruled unanimously in favor of the Sixth Sense filmmaker after a seven-day trial in Riverside, California.
Italian-born director Francesca Gregorini had been seeking up to $81 million in damages after alleging that Shyamalan and his collaborators had lifted narrative elements from her 2013 film The Truth About Emanuel.
The film told the story of a woman who treats a baby doll as if it were her child, and a nanny who goes along with the delusion.
Variety reports that Shyamalan testified that he and Servant’s other creators had never seen or heard of Gregorini’s film prior to the litigation, calling the situation “clearly, 100%, a misunderstanding.”
Oscar-winning filmmaker Shyamalan is known for classics including The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. His films are said to have cumulatively grossed over $3.3bn (£2.7bn).
“This accusation is the exact opposite of everything I do and everything I try to represent,” said Shyamalan in court. “I would have never allowed it. None of the people that I work with would ever do anything like that.”
Gregorini claimed that scenes in Servant where a nanny treats a doll as a real child, and faints, had been lifted from her film.
Shyamalan argued that a scene of a character fainting was not original enough to be copywritten. “We’ve all seen it hundreds and hundreds of times,” he said. “Hitchcock has done it in Rebecca, Notorious, maybe Saboteur. It’s just a thing no one owns.”
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Shyamalan’s lawyers also pointed out the many differences between the projects, noting that Servant is a supernatural thriller while The Truth About Emanuel is a coming-of-age drama. The jury was shown the first three episodes of the show as well as the film at the start of the trial.
Starring Jessica Biel and Kaya Scodelario, The Truth About Emanuel, played at the Sundance Film Festival when it was first released. It did not have much success, grossing just $226 in Los Angeles and $9 from one viewer in Philadelphia.
“Ms. Gregorini is seeking a windfall here,” Shyamalan’s attorney Brittany Amadi told the court when the trial began.
“She’s seeking $81 million for work she didn’t do. The truth is the creators of Servant do not owe anything to Ms Gregorini.”
