(EXCLUSIVE) Director Lee Daniels – Victory in $1 Billion Legal Battle Over Hit Show ‘Empire’

Lee Daniels

theJasmineBRAND.com exclusively reports, Lee Daniels can breathe a sigh of relief due to the $1 BILLION dollar lawsuit accusing the director of stealing another man’s idea for the hit show “Empire” being dismissed. A federal court judge says the two works aren’t even similar and he awarded the plaintiff nothing from his suit.

Here’s the latest: On July 27th, the Federal Court judge presiding over the case came back with his decision and he sided with Lee Daniels by dismissing the all claims of copyright infringement and awarded the man nothing from his suit. The order explains after the judge reviewed both works, it was clear to him that the hit show and the documentary aren’t substantially similar at all. The order reads,

Plaintiff has demonstrated, at most, random similarities between the works …

The judge granted Lee Daniel’s motion to dismiss the infringement claim.

Chris Rock, Lee Daniels, Terrence Howard

Here’s the backstory: Last year, self-described “known ghetto player”, Ron Newt, filed a federal lawsuit against director Lee Daniels, Terrence Howard and the producers of “Empire”. The man claimed that the show is a carbon copy of his film about his own life as a

gangster, pimp and drug dealer.

Terrence Howard

Newt claimed he met Terrence at the Four Seasons hotel a while back and he told the actor about his documentary, “Bigger than Big” and Terrence told him he wanted to play him in the film adaptation.

The man never heard back from the actor but later saw “Empire” and realized they stole numerous things from his work and he filed suit demanding $1 billion dollars in damages.

Lee Daniels and Terrance Howard fired back at the lawsuit demanding the entire case be thrown out and the man awarded nothing. Daniels explained that the man’s story is full of cold blooded killings, dismemberment and crude descriptions of his sexual escapades in graphic details — something that would never be shown on his TV show.

Empire Cast (Upfronts 2015)

The director also pointed out the music industry isn’t a major focus in the Newt’s story. He says it’s only briefly touched upon unlike in his hit show “Empire”.

Daniels said his show is “dialogue-rich, soap opera styled family drama“, unlike Newt’s work which is graphic and dark. He also claimed that the two works are NOT substantially similar. The director said there is no evidence showing Terrence had any role in creating Empire, so even if he did meet with Newt it would have no effect on the TV show’s development.

The director stated there are virtually no similarities between the works and he demanded the $1 billion dollar lawsuit be thrown out of court.

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