Will Smith wins $1.7 million copyright lawsuit by sci-fi author over Gemini Man
The 2019 sci-fi film Gemini Man being a box office bomb was the least of Will Smith's worries after an author filed a copyright claim.
Actor Will Smith was embroiled in a copyright lawsuit over the 2019 Ang Lee-directorial Gemini Man. In Touch reported that a federal judge dismissed all claims against Will in a case brought by sci-fi author Ken Sibanda aka Kissinger Sibanda. (Also Read: Will Smith recreates The Matrix scenes for music video; unimpressed internet realises 'Keanu Reeves was right choice’)
Will Smith gets relief
The publication reported that they sourced court documents of the copyright lawsuit. While the judge did not dismiss the entire lawsuit, he dismissed claims against Will on January 31. Ken filed a $1.7 million lawsuit against Will, Skydance Productions, Gemini Pictures, Paramount Pictures, David Ellison, and other companies over Gemini Man. The author will likely proceed with the claims against other defendants in the case.
What happened
Ken claims that Gemini Man is a rip-off of his science fiction novel The Return to Gibraltar, which was released in 2011. The book reportedly details an African American who is cloned and used in a time-travelling program without consent. The author pointed out that Gemini Man has been stuck in development since 1997 when other actors were to play the role, which ended up going to Will. Ken claimed to have shared a copy of his book with Will’s stunt double in 2012 but could not collect the double’s name.
His suit also claimed that copies of his book had been sent to Hollywood's biggest talent agency. The lawsuit claims that until he released his book, the defendants struggled to make the film because they later lifted ‘themes, plots, characters, context and cultural subtexts’ from the book, including the protagonist being a Harvard man.
History of the case
Ken claimed to have sent a legal letter to them in 2020 but was met with no response. Will and the production companies responded to the lawsuit in November 2024. They claimed that Ken had filed a similar lawsuit previously and made the same claims that were already dismissed. Will was not named in the previous lawsuit, which the court dismissed due to the author’s failure to register his copyright prior to initiating action. The author filed his new complaint a week after that.
Gemini Man had a budget of $138 million minus marketing, bringing in $173 million worldwide.