M. Night Shyamalan and Apple sued over 'Servant' show's similarity to movie

Servant (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

M. Night Shyamalan and Apple are being sued.
It's alleged that "Servant" borrows themes from a movie.
The 2013 movie "The Truth About Emanuel" starred Jessica Biel.

Apple and M. Night Shyamalan are being sued because "Servant" is similar to a 2013 movie called "The Truth About Emanuel," according to The Blast.. Show creator Tony Basgallop is also named on the suit.

Francesca Gregorini, director of "The Truth About Emanuel" claims that the Apple TV+ show has the same "cinematic language" and a "substantially similar feeling, mood, and theme" as the movie. Both the movie and TV show feature similar themes, although the trailer for the former doesn't make that obvious.

While Apple and Shyalaman say that "Servant" was being worked on before 2013, that isn't washing with some people.

"Defendants have arrogantly dismissed Ms. Gregorini's protests by vaguely claiming that Servant was in development long before Emanuel was made and that any similarity is a coincidence. Indeed, Mr. Shyamalan and Mr. Basgallop implausibly claim they have never seen Emanuel--apparently not even curious enough to watch after hearing Ms. Gregorini's objections. Worse, Apple has brought stonewalling to a new level by simply referring inquiries to Mr. Shyamalan's lawyer (who in turns says he cannot speak for Apple)."

Gregorini is looking for damages as well as the profits Apple made from "Servant." There is also a request to have Apple prevented from further distributing the show, too. We'd expect this one to run and run, unfortunately.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.