An Indiana man is claiming that he led Tyler Perry into “Temptation” — and now he wants payback from the filmmaker.
Writer William James of Gary, Ind., filed a lawsuit against Perry in U.S. District Court in Indiana this week, saying that the idea for Perry’s “Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor” is lifted from his 2009 script “Lovers Kill.”
According to the suit, both James’ script and Perry’s movie revolves around a marriage that’s ruined when the wife has an affair — which, truth be told, doesn’t sound like a particularly unique concept. James claims that he passed a copy of his script to an associate of Perry pal and business partner Oprah Winfrey, in hopes of getting it to Perry, so it’s not clear whether the “Madea’s Family Reunion” filmmaker has even heard of “Lovers Kill.”
James is seeking unspecified damages. Oh, and he also wants “Temptation” to be edited so that the opening and closing credits include “Based on the Novel ‘Lovers Kill’ by William James.”
“Temptation” — which was released March 29 and stars Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Vanessa Williams and, yes, Kim Kardashian — hasn’t fared well critically; it currently holds a 27 out of 100 score on Metacritic, indicating that it’s received generally unfavorable reviews. However, the film has pulled in a little over $49 million at the box office so far, according to Box Office Mojo.
What do you think…does this guy have a case?
Source: BlackMediaScoop
