(Exclusive) Lee Daniels – $600 Million Lawsuit Accusing Him of Stealing ‘Empire’ Dismissed

Lee Daniels

theJasmineBRAND.com exclusively reports, Lee Daniels has shut down a $600 million dollar legal battle filed by an unknown writer accusing the director of stealing his work for the hit show “Empire” — with a federal court judge throwing out the entire case.

A man named Romanus Castro has filed a federal lawsuit against Fox Network, Lee Daniels, Danny Strong and the production companies behind the “Empire” accusing them of stealing his work to create the hit show.

The man said that he wrote an original screenplay entitled “The Summit of Beauty of Love“. The story follows a music journalist who falls in love with a musician who is schizophrenic. Further, he states it is centered in the music industry.

He said that in 2003, he shopped the story around town to various people but never received a response.

Castro laid out how similar his story and Empire are in the court documents. The author explained that his characters are from Philly like the Lyon family, he says his characters are identical to Cookie, Lucious and the other main characters in Empire — along with them all having a very similar story-line throughout the works.

He also pointed out that several key moments in his book were straight up copied in the first season of the FOX show. Lastly, both works have the main son character coming out as gay.

Empire Cast (Upfronts 2015)

Castro said that his book laid the groundwork for Empire without his consent or compensation. He was furious that Daniels and Strong claimed they created Empire independently.

He filed suit against Lee Daniels, Danny Strong, FOX and the other producers for 600 million dollars in damages for stealing his work.

This month, the federal court judge came back and sided with Daniels by dismissing the entire lawsuit awarding the man nothing of his $600 mill complaint.

Lee Daniels

The judge says Castro has failed to provide any evidence he owns an actual copyright for his work. Further, the order says that the unknown author has failed to state the specific allegations against each defendant or the details of the alleged infringement.

The order allows Castro to re-file an amended complaint within 30 days but the judge has laid out that he will have to show him a lot to even have him consider re-opening the lawsuit.

Follow us: @theJasmineBRAND on Twitter | theJasmineBRAND on Facebook| theJasmineBRANDcom on Instagram