M. Night Shyamalan Triumphs in $81M ‘Servant’ Plagiarism Trial Against ‘The Truth About Emanuel’ Claims
The courtroom became an unlikely stage for M. Night Shyamalan’s latest twist—this time, not in a shadowy thriller, but in a real-life legal drama where the director emerged victorious. A federal jury has ruled in favor of Shyamalan and co-creator Tony Basgallop, dismissing filmmaker Francesca Gregorini’s $81 million plagiarism claims against their Apple TV+ series Servant. The verdict caps a saga as layered and contentious as one of Shyamalan’s own labyrinthine plots, complete with reborn dolls, fainting spells, and a battle over who owns the rights to trauma.
Gregorini’s 2013 indie drama The Truth About Emanuel—a melancholic tale of grief and maternal delusion—allegedly inspired Servant’s eerie premise. Both stories orbit around women clinging to porcelain surrogates for lost children, but the similarities, argued Shyamalan’s legal team, are as superficial as a doll’s glassy stare. “This is a classic case of Rear Window meets The People vs. Larry Flynt,” one might quip, were this a film script. Instead, it’s a stark reminder that grief, like celluloid, is a well-trodden genre.
Shyamalan, ever the showman, testified with the calm defiance of a man who’s spent decades defying expectations. “Hitchcock fainted first,” he shrugged, dismissing Gregorini’s claims over a pivotal collapsing scene. His attorney, Brittany Amadi, painted Gregorini as a opportunist “seeking a windfall” for tropes as old as cinema itself: reborn dolls, haunted nannies, mothers unraveling. The jury agreed.
Yet the heart of the dispute lies not in plot points but in tone. The Truth About Emanuel is a brooding character study, its protagonist Emanuel navigating guilt over her mother’s death while enabling Linda’s delusions. Servant, by contrast, is pure Shyamalan—a claustrophobic, supernatural puzzlebox where a doll transforms into a living child, cults lurk in the shadows, and psychological decay curdles into horror. Comparing the two, argued the defense, is like mistaking Rosemary’s Baby for Steel Magnolias.
Gregorini’s evidence—a waterlogged dream sequence here, a fainting spell there—collapsed under scrutiny. The jury saw no theft, only the foggy overlap of universal themes. Shyamalan, ever the auteur, called the lawsuit “the exact opposite of everything I represent,” a sentiment echoed by fans who’ve followed his career of original (if uneven) nightmares.
As Servant concludes its four-season run on Apple TV+, this verdict ensures its legacy won’t be overshadowed by courtroom theatrics. But the case raises thorny questions: Can grief be copyrighted? Do tropes belong to everyone? For now, the answer is clear: Shyamalan’s chilling vision remains his own.
FAQs:
- What was Francesca Gregorini’s lawsuit against M. Night Shyamalan about?
Gregorini alleged Shyamalan’s Servant plagiarized her 2013 film The Truth About Emanuel, particularly scenes involving reborn dolls and fainting sequences. - How did the court rule on the ‘Servant’ plagiarism case?
A federal jury dismissed the claims, ruling that similarities between the works were generic tropes, not copyrightable elements. - What’s the difference between ‘Servant’ and ‘The Truth About Emanuel’?
Servant is a supernatural thriller about a cult and a mysteriously reanimated child, while Emanuel is a psychological drama centered on grief and maternal guilt. - Did Shyamalan comment on the lawsuit’s outcome?
Shyamalan called the allegations a “misunderstanding,” stressing his commitment to original storytelling. - Is ‘Servant’ available to stream after the trial?
Yes—all four seasons of Servant remain on Apple TV+, concluding its run in March 2023.
