An Indiana feels actor and playwright Tyler Perry stole his idea for the movie “Temptation,” according to MSN.com.
Writer William James of Gary, Indiana is suing Perry claiming that Perry’s movie “Temptations: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor” was taken from a script he wrote in 2009 entitled “Lovers Kill”.
According to the lawsuit, the movie and the play both involve a marriage that is torn to pieces after the wife has an affair. If this were the only criteria for the lawsuit then there wouldn't likely be much of a case.
However James also claims that he gave a copy of the script to Oprah Winfrey, a friend and business partner of Perry’s, so Winfrey could pass it on to the filmmaker. It is still unknown as to whether or not Perry has ever heard of “Lovers Kill.”
In the lawsuit, James calls for damages that have not been specified. He would also like to see the words “Based on the Novel ‘Lovers Kill’ by William James,” appear in the opening and closing credits.
According to Box Office Mojo, the film has made a little more than 49 million in the box office. However it has not gotten very favorable reviews.
For example, Film Critic Peter Sobczynki, who writes for the Roger Ebert website, said the movie was not a good depictions of Perry’s talents:
Perry does have a knack for connecting with audiences in ways that most filmmakers can only aspire to and to see him waste that ability on junk like this is sad. According to IMDb, Perry's next film will be "A Madea Christmas," a holiday extravaganza that will pair his Madea character with the equally off-putting Larry the Cable Guy. And yet, as dreadful as that sounds, "Temptation" is so bad that it could actually turn out to be as Perry's cinematic high-water mark for the year.
Perry has not yet commented on the incident.
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