A federal jury in California has ruled that director M. Night Shyamalan did not steal ideas from another filmmaker for his Apple TV series "Servant," ending his five-year battle over a lawsuit that had sought $81 million in damages.
Shyamalan was sued by Italian-born filmmaker Francesca Gregorini — the stepdaughter of the Beatles drummer Ringo Starr — over claims that "Servant" used the same premise and other elements from her 2013 indie drama, "The Truth About Emanuel," without providing credit. Apple and others involved in "Servant" also were defendants in the lawsuit.
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The jury in the case ruled unanimously in Shyamalan's favor on Friday after a seven-day trial in Riverside, which is about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles, Variety reported.
"The Truth About Emanuel" revolves around a mother and nanny who treat a baby doll as if it were a real infant. In Shyamalan's psychological horror show, which is set in Philadelphia, a grieving mother who accidentally killed her baby pretends that a therapy doll is real. The family's nanny is part of a cult that seemingly holds the power to bring the doll in and out of life, putting the family in danger as a curse inhabits their home.
"Servant" ran for four seasons between 2019 and 2023, periodically bringing film crews into Center City for scenes shot in and around a row home on the 2000 block of Spruce Street and at other locations, including Rittenhouse Square. Gregorini alleged that she noticed the plot similarities between the two projects when the trailer for "Servant" was released in November 2019. In her lawsuit, she claimed that several scenes in Shyamalan's show were lifted from her movie.
During the trial, Shyamalan testified that any overlap between the projects was "clearly, 100%, a misunderstanding."
“This accusation is the exact opposite of everything I do and everything I try to represent,” Shyamalan told the court. “I would have never allowed it. None of the people that I work with would ever do anything like that.”
Gregorini specifically called out a fainting scene in "Servant" that she alleged was copied from her movie. Shyamalan testified that fainting is a trope seen in many films and does not meet the bar of originality needed to prove that "Servant" stole the idea from Gregorini's film. Attorneys for the defendants also noted that "Servant" and "The Truth About Emanual" are different genres.
During the trial, the jury screened "The Truth About Emanuel" and three episodes of "Servant." Gregorini testified that she has faced problems in her career because of the lawsuit but pursued the case to protect filmmakers against having their ideas poached by bigger-budget projects.
“I wanted to hold the defendants accountable for what they did and to do my part so that this doesn’t happen to anyone else in my industry ever again,” Gregorini testified.
The case previously had been tossed by a federal judge but was brought back after an appeal in 2022.
Shyamalan, who grew up on the Main Line in Montgomery County, has been accused of plagiarism on other occasions in the past. Screenwriter Robert McIlhinney filed a lawsuit against Shyamalan in 2003 for allegedly taking ideas from an unproduced screenplay, the New York Times reported, and author Margaret Peterson Haddix claimed in 2004 that Shyamalan’s "The Village" had a similar plot to her 1995 novel "Running Out of Time."
