26th June 2017

Following Madonna’s very public objections to an upcoming film about her younger years, Emma Teichmann, Associate in the Dispute Resolution team explores the clearance issues surrounding the production of biopics in an article published today in Screen Daily.

Included in last year’s Black List – an annual list of popular, as-yet-unproduced screenplays – was a biopic about Madonna’s early singing career. Elyse Hollander’s Blond Ambition was hugely popular amongst Hollywood development execs, and has now been picked up by Universal Pictures. However, one person is not a fan: Madonna herself, who has denounced the script as “all lies”.

Various media outlets have attempted to fact check the publicly available draft to see whether it contains any untruths but it does springboard nicely into the topic of biopics as defamation battlegrounds, and how people involved in the creation and distribution of a film can limit their risks of a legal claim.  Click on the link below to read the article in full.

http://www.screendaily.com/comment/how-to-navigate-the-defamation-minefield-of-movie-biopics/5119060.article?blocktitle=COMMENT&contentID=43828#