Director Francesca Gregorini is suing Apple and M. Night Shyamalan for allegedly copying the story of her 2013 movie The Truth About Emanuel in the new thriller series Servant. The streaming show has “strikingly similar” plot details, including an “almost irrational reciprocal devotion” between a mother and her nanny following the death of a child, with that same mother channeling her energy into a doll.
Gregorini goes on to declare that Shyamalan just took her premise and put it through the “male lens,” with men looking down on a woman’s mental health and addressing the sex appeal of the nanny. According to the lawsuit, Shyamalan, series creator Tony Basgallop and Apple ‘negated’ the experiences of Gregorini and other women involved in Emanuel.
So far Apple has not commented on the lawsuit.
If she wins the lawsuit. However, these kinds of arguments aren’t new. Shyamalan has had them before. At one point, Simon & Schuster had issues about his movie The Village after noticing the same elements to Margaret Peterson Haddix’s book Running Out of Time, though it never got to the court. Gregorini will likely have to show that the plot similarities to make a strong case against Apple.
Source: Engadget