The creators of Empire are being sued for $500 million (NZ$771m) over claims it rips off ideas from other shows.
Jon
Astor-White is suing the musical drama's executive producers Lee
Daniels and Danny Strong, as well as Imagine Entertainment and 21st
Century Fox, claiming they borrowed the idea from a programme called King Solomon, which he shopped around in 2007.
According
to TMZ, Astor-White faxed a treatment for the show - about a record
executive and his family and their battle over company control - around
to various companies and it included a proposed cast list featuring the
likes of Richard Roundtree, Alicia Keys, Kanye West, John Goodman and
George Hamilton.
Astor-White described his show as "the style and elegance of Dynasty meets The Sopranos with a sprinkling of The Godfather".
He is seeking US$500 million plus additional damages.
The claim comes weeks after Marvin Gaye's son, Marvin Gaye III, also
planned to take legal action over the show, which screened on TV2 in New
Zealand earlier this year, claiming they stole his idea.
Gaye claimed to have registered a treatment on a show called Diamonds & Ballads, aka Those Sons of Riches!,
with the Writers Guild of America in 2010, with the proposed drama
pitched as "a music based 'black' and 'hip' version of Dynasty ... with a
little Sopranos."
When he shopped the proposal round to TV
executives, Gaye told them it was loosely based on his own family, as
well as Motown producer Berry Gordy and his loved ones, and he claims
some of the people he approached were associates of Lee.
Gaye believes the Empire boss previously unwittingly confessed to stealing the idea after the show made it big.
Drawing comparisons to The Sopranos, Lee said last year: "I wanted to make a black Dynasty."
He is now planning to file a lawsuit for an unspecified sum.
His lawyer said: "We understand that three things can't be hidden for long: the Sun, the Moon and the Truth!(sic)"
- Bang! Showbiz
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