Author “Gerald Brittle” is suing the studio behind the super-successful “Conjuring” franchise for $900 million, which is just slightly more than what the film made at the box office “$886 million”.
This is one of the most bizarre lawsuit we’ve ever heard of and I cannot even begin to imagine how weird and hilarious the court cases will be.
The conjuring movies and the spin-off “Annabelle” tout themselves as being “based on the true case files of the famous married pair of paranormal investigators, The Warrens”. Brittle wrote a book about them in 1980 called “The Demonologist.”
Brittle said the Warrens signed an agreement with him in 1978, stating that they aren’t allowed to make or contract any works based on the same subject as Brittles’ book with anyone but him but in 1997, Warner Bros signed an agreement with the Warrens for the rights to make movies based on their case files, which Brittles says violates his pre-existing contract with the Warrens.
In 2015, Brittle sent a cease and desist letter, trying to fight the release of “The Conjuring 2”, saying he had the exclusive rights to the Warrens’ case files. Warner Bros responded by saying the films weren’t based on the demonologist but instead, on historical facts. Now, that’s where Brittle and his legal team think they have a chance to beat Warner Bros.
Brittle says there’s nothing factual about the Warrens’ case files because ghosts and witches aren’t real, neither are dolls trying to murder people.
Brittle and many other skeptics claim that the Warrens perpetuated a hoax for years.
Brittles’ lawyer said this; “To the extent the defendants movies are not based on historical facts, they cannot claim they are protected by the fair use doctrine exemption to copyright.”
In order to prove that the Warrens’ findings are indeed “historical facts,” Warner Bros will have to make the biggest paranormal breakthrough in history, and prove that a witch killed herself outside a farmhouse and evil spirits are real and that “Annabelle” is coming to get you.
At this point, the lawsuit has been filed but Warner Bros is yet to receive it.
