M Night Shyamalan sued for $81 million in copyright claim against ‘Servant’

Posted On January 16, 2025January 16, 2025

Director M Night Shyamalan has appeared in court after being sued for $81 million by a filmmaker who claims her 2013 independent film was plagiarised when his AppleTV+ series, Servant, was created.

Servant, created by British scribe Tony Basgallop and produced by Shyamalan, tells the story of a bereaved couple hiring a mysterious young nanny to look after their baby. However, it transpires that their baby died, but the mother still believes he’s alive, and the infant the nanny is watching over is a lifelike doll.

Italian director Francesca Gregorini initially brought forward her lawsuit in 2020, not long after Servant debuted on the streaming platform, claiming that Shyamalan and company pilfered key details from her 2013 film The Truth About Emanuel. That movie starred Kaya Scodelario and Jessica Biel and also dealt with a mother believing her baby is real, when she is, in fact, a doll.

Gregorini’s suit was thrown out in 2020 but revived in 2022 by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. A judge soon ordered that the lawsuit would be settled by a jury, who would be ordered to watch The Truth About Emanuel and the first three episodes of Servant back-to-back before the attorneys make their cases for the prosecution and defence.

On January 14th, Shyamalan sat behind his legal team, producer Taylor Latham, and AppleTV+’s head of programming Matt Cherniss, while Basgallop was at the defence counsel table.

Defence attorney Brittany Amadi argued that Basgallop began developing Servant long before The Truth About Emanuel was released, and therefore, it was never influenced by the film. Conversely, prosecuting attorney Patrick Arenz argues, “This is a simple case. There would be no Servant without Emanuel.”

Over the next two weeks, Arenz will attempt to prove that the two projects have substantial similarities and that Basgallop, Shyamalan and others involved in Servant had access to The Truth About Emanuel. Shyamalan, director of films such as The Sixth Sense and Trap, is expected to testify during the proceedings.

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