Hollywood producers and directors are always being sued after people accuse them of stealing story lines or plots for films. The Matrix and Terminator franchises lost a major lawsuit and settled out of court for an undisclosed amount, after a woman by the name of Sophia Stewart accused the company of copyright infringement. Stewart claimed they turned down her concepts but made the films without her consent.
Yesterday, in a Philadelphia federal court, a woman by the Terri Donald filed a lawsuit against Tyler Perry and Lionsgate Entertainment saying that they stole her plot for his film Good Deeds.
Good Deeds is a romantic drama movie, which was written, directed and starred Tyler Perry. The film was released on February 24, 2012 and made a little over $35 million in the box office.
In the lawsuit, Donald claims that Perry stole the story line for his film from her 2007 book Bad Apples Can Be Good Fruit. She also mentioned that she sent a copy of her book to Perry long before the movie went into production.
Donald is seeking $225,000 in damages and is asking the court to require that Perry’s company add a credit for her book in both the opening and closing credits of the film.
