Like many businesses, Hollywood faces legal challenges. Courts regularly hear cases involving working conditions, breach of contract, and even intellectual property rights. Many shows have faced legal trouble after someone sues for intellectual property theft. Massive hits like The Pitt, Yellowstone, and P-Valley have been engaged in years-long battles after being accused of stealing concepts from other creatives. Many of these cases take years to resolve, and in 2020, Apple TV and M. Night Shyamalan found themselves engaged in a legal fight over Servant.

In the thriller created by mystery maestro Shyamalan, when a Philadelphia couple loses their baby, their marriage suffers, and in an attempt to repair it, they invite a mysterious force into their home. The series premiered in 2019 and stars Lauren Ambrose (Dorothy), Toby Kebbell (Sean Turner), Rupert Grint (Julian), and Nell Tiger Free (Leanne). A year later, filmmaker Francesca Gregorini filed a lawsuit alleging that Servant copied the plot, tone, characters, and specific visual styling of her 2013 indie movie The Truth About Emanuel, which similarly featured a grieving mother caring for a lifelike reborn doll and hiring a nanny who bonds with the substitute baby.

A judge dismissed the case in 2020 after finding that the works bore little resemblance. He fined Gregorini $160,000 in legal fees incurred by Apple and Shyamalan. The case was revived in 2022 after it was determined that the judge threw it out too quickly and the fee was struck down. Apple and Shyamalan convinced a jury in 2025 that the makers of Servant did not have access to Gregorini‘s film before making their show. Gregorini appealed, and on Thursday, October 22, a U.S. appeals court upheld the jury’s verdict, ending the 6-year battle.

Is ‘Servant’ Like ‘The Truth About Emmanuel’?

The movie and film have different characters and tones, with Servant focusing on a couple who lose their baby, and the mother copes by treating a doll like her child. The couple hires a nanny who plays the part, but later on, the doll transforms into an actual baby, deepening the mystery. The Truth About Emanuel also follows the same beats, but the mother lives alone, the nanny is a neighbor, and the doll doesn’t transform. The conflict comes from the nanny’s stepmother, who grows suspicious and threatens to expose the deluded acts. The film premiered six years before the show, and Gregorini‘s team couldn’t prove that Servant‘s team had access to it because of its limited success as an independent production, or that they came across the script during the development cycle.

All four seasons of Servant are available to stream on Apple TV, while The Truth About Emmanuel is available for purchase on iTunes.

 

via Collider