“Servant” creator M. Night Shyamalan
In a twist worthy of an M. Night Shyamalan movie, a lawsuit against the Apple TV+ series “Servant” is back from the dead. In early 2020, filmmaker Francesca Gregorini sued Apple and “Servant” creator Shyamalan over alleged infringement. Gregorini said that the creepy Apple TV+ series not only lifted the plot of her film, The Truth About Emanuel, it also employed very similar “production and cinematography choices.” Too similar to be coincidental, in Gregorini’s estimation. According to a piece from Apple Insider:
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 suit was dismissed when the judge hearing the case said that the two works were not similar enough for the case to proceed. Now, Apple Insider says it’s back. An appeals court has ruled that the 2020 dismissal was “improper,” saying “reasonable minds could differ on the issue of substantial similarity.”
No word in the piece on what happens next, though Gregorini was looking for quite a bit the first time around. “In the initial suit,” Apple Insider says the filmmaker:
…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.
