A federal jury ruled unifiedly in prefer of M. Night Shyamalan and Apple on Friday, finishing a imitateright trial that saw the deffinishants accengaged of stealing elements from an self-reliant horror film in the writing of the streaming series “Servant.”
The nine-day trial in Riverside, Calif., which began Jan. 14., saw Italian-born straightforwardor Francesca Gregorini seeking as much as $81 million in harms, alleging that Shyamalan and collaborators had lifted narrative elements of her 2013 film, “The Truth About Emanuel,” without acunderstandledge. Gregorini’s film trailed a delusional mother who treats a baby doll as if it were a authentic infant, aextfinished with a nanny who corroborates that inrectify fact. “Servant” carries a analogous plotline.
Gregorini testified last week that she was “shocked” when she first saw the trailer for “Servant,” and thinkd that her film had been stolen from her. Shyamalan testified Wednesday that he and the other creators of the show had never seen or heard of Gregorini’s film before the legal case, saying that the situation was “evidently, 100%, a misempathetic.”
“This accusation is the exact opposite of everyleang I do and everyleang I try to recontransient,” he telderly the court.
During the trial, the jury screened the film and the first three episodes of the show at the outset of the trial. They also heard from competing experts on filmmaking and Apple’s finances.
The verdict caps a five-year lhorrible battle. The initial suit aachievest Apple, Shyamalan and authorr Tony Basgallop, among others, was filed back in 2020, lowly after “Servant” premiered on Apple TV+ (the series has since endd its four-season run). A federal assess initiassociate threw out the case, but the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals revived it in 2022, discovering a authentic dispute over whether the two toils are “substantiassociate analogous.” After Apple’s motion for summary judgment in November was denied, the suit was ordered to be endd by a jury.
