Warner Bros getting sued for $900m
The Conjuring franchise has been fraught with litigation with a $900M damage by author
Los Angeles: Another lawsuit has come to haunt The Conjuring series. As reported by Hollywood Reporter, The Conjuring franchise has been fraught with litigation and the latest complaint includes a $900 million damage claim by Gerald Brittle.
Author Gerald Brittle, in the complaint said that the horror franchise infringe on his 1980 book The Demonologist, which tells the stories of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.
The 355-paged amended complaint is filed against Warner Bros., New Line Productions and director James Wan, among others in Virginia federal court.
The author claims that in a 1978 agreement for his book, the couple agreed to a no “competing work” provision that is still in effect.
Under it, Brittle says, the Warrens aren’t allowed to make or contract any works based on the “same subject” as The Demonologist, specifically their “lives and experiences as paranormal investigators.”
The attorney of the case, Patrick C. Henry II noted, “[W]hen Lorraine Warren granted the Defendants the right to use the Warren Case Files, which the Defendants themselves repeatedly state their movies are based on, she could not have done so because she had years earlier contractually granted that exclusive right to use those same Warren cases, Warren Case Files and related materials to the Plaintiff.”
He added, “It is very hard to believe that a large conglomerate such as Warner Brothers, with their army of lawyers and who specializes in intellectual property rights deals, would not have found The Demonologist book or the deals related to it, or Brittle for that matter. Now the “only logical conclusion” is that defendants knew about the deals and ignored them thinking “they would never get caught.” The author further claimed that New Line explicitly told screenwriters not to read his book.