M. Night Shyamalan starts trial for $81 million lawsuit alleging his show “Servant” stole ideas from 2013 movie

Italian-born filmmaker Francesca Gregorini claims the Apple TV+ series copied concepts from "The Truth About Emanuel."

John Nacion/Getty M. Night Shyamalan

John Nacion/Getty

M. Night Shyamalan

M. Night Shyamalan is on trial for alleged copyright infringement.

The Sixth Sense filmmaker faces a lawsuit from Italian director Francesca Gregorini, who claims that Shyamalan's Apple TV+ show Servant stole substantially similar concepts from her 2013 film The Truth About Emanuel. Gregorini's initial complaint was filed in January 2020, and the case's trial began in federal court in Riverside, Calif., on Tuesday.

Representatives for Shyamalan, Apple, and the defendants' legal team didn't immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly's requests for comment.

Gregorini's complaint, which EW has reviewed, says that Shyamalan "implausibly" claims he's never seen Emanuel. Gregorini is seeking $81 million from Servant's creators, including Apple and Shyamalan, who was present in the courtroom for opening arguments.

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However, most of Tuesday's opening arguments focused not on Shyamalan — who served as showrunner, executive producer, and occasional director on the four-season series — but on Servant's creator, Tony Basgallop, who is also a defendant in the case.

Apple TV+ Lauren Ambrose and Rupert Grint on 'Servant'
Apple TV+ Lauren Ambrose and Rupert Grint on 'Servant'

Related: How Servant is influencing M. Night Shyamalan's new movies like Knock at the Cabin

In an opening statement, Gregorini's attorney, Patrick Arenz, observed that both The Truth About Emanuel and Servant center on "a delusional mother who cares for a lifelike doll" and bonds with a nanny who "indulges" her by taking care of the doll as if were a real child, according to a court transcript reviewed by EW.

"This is a simple case. Francesca Gregorini created original and new expressions in her film Emanuel," Arenz said. "The film was available to the defendants and the defendants copied key elements of these expressions in their television show Servant. Make no mistake about it, there would be no Servant without Emanuel. Now, the defendants' decision to copy elements from Emanuel was as lucrative as it was intentional. They have generated over $300 million from this television series."

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Servant sprang from ideas that Basgallop had conceived for a previous iteration of the supernatural project titled Practically Perfect, and Arenz argued that the screenwriter amended his work to add "a doll and a delusional mother" in 2016, when he presented the concept to Shyamalan — three years after Emanuel premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Arenz claimed that Shyamalan and his colleagues "love the reborn doll" upon hearing Basgallop's pitch. "It's so compelling, fresh, edgy. It's definitely the big idea of the show. They also love the awesome concept between the mother character and the nanny character."

Arenz also argued that Emanuel is "based on Ms. Gregorini's life experiences because it was about her efforts to protect her mother when she was suffering from an addiction and keeping up the delusion that everything was fine at home."

Tribeca Films Jessica Biel and Kaya Scodelario in 'The Truth About Emanuel'

Tribeca Films

Jessica Biel and Kaya Scodelario in 'The Truth About Emanuel'

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In the defense's own opening statement, attorney Brittany Amadi also argued that the creative work in question was personal to her client.

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"It was the result of 15 years of work by Tony Basgallop developing a compelling story based on his own real-life experiences," Amadi said. "Now, when he came up with the idea for Servant in November 2005, he had two small children, ages 1 and 3, and he and his wife had hired an 18-year-old nanny to care for them. And that was what his concept was born from. He thought of 'What if you welcomed a nanny into your home and strange and sinister things started to happen?' The idea of an anti-Mary Poppins."

Amadi attempted to write off Arenz's opening statement as "mudslinging," instead arguing, "There was no copying in this case. None. You won't see a shred of evidence that anyone involved in Servant said, 'Hey, The Truth About Emanuel looks like a great film. Let's make Servant more like Emanuel.'"

Related: Why M. Night Shyamalan brought in his daughter Ishana to direct Servant episodes

To support her argument, Amadi brought forth an exhibit of Emanuel's box office data, which showed that the film made a total of $226 at its top-selling theater in Los Angeles during its theatrical run, and only $9 in Shyamalan's hometown of Philadelphia. "If a ticket costs $10," the attorney said, "that means about 22 people saw her movie in the theater with the most sales [in Los Angeles]. Ask yourself, is it reasonable to assume that one of those 22 people were any of the creators of Servant?"

Amadi also argued that "there are far, far more differences than there are similarities" between the two projects, primarily because of their different genres: "Supernatural thriller versus emotional drama. The two different genres are very, very different."

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The defense also noted that the most similar element, the reborn doll, is not an original idea exclusive to Emanuel. "[Gregorini] did not invent the concept of a reborn doll," Amadi said. "Reborn dolls existed in the world before her movie and after. They're a real-life fact. And anyone can draw from facts that are in the real world when they're creating movies, when they're creating television shows. There's nothing wrong with that."

Related: Why Servant had to end with that epic confrontation between Dorothy and Leanne

Amadi pointed out that other notable pieces of entertainment like The Boy, The Leftovers, and High Maintenance have utilized similar concepts.

After opening statements concluded, the court screened the entirety of The Truth About Emanuel for the jury, followed by the first three episodes of Servant, which are the only ones the plaintiff claims infringed on her copyright.

At the conclusion of the trial, the jury will review the evidence and decide whether Servant is substantially similar to The Truth About Emanuel, and that decision will determine whether Gregorini is awarded any of the damages she seeks.

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