Beyonce Sued for Allegedly Lifting Short Film to Create 'Lemonade' Trailer
The plaintiff -- a creative director at a news station -- claims that a member of the pop superstar's team has acknowleged seeing his work.
Beyoncé unleashed Lemonade without much advance hype, but about a week before an her album dropped amid an accompanying HBO special, she posted a trailer on YouTube. According to a new lawsuit filed in New York, this trailer was copied without permission from a short film titled Palinoia.
The plaintiff in the case is Matthew Fulks, who identifies himself as both an independent filmmaker as well as the creative director at WDRB. Fulks says he conceptualizes, writes and directs TV advertisements for the Louisville, Kentucky-based news station.
In the complaint, Fulks theorizes how defendants including Sony Music, Columbia Recording and Beyoncé's Parkwood Entertainment got access to Palinoia.
Fulks says he was contacted about the opportunity to direct a video by the Columbia-signed musical group MS MR, and as a result, links to Palinoia were sent to others including Bryan Younce, who has created videos for Beyoncé and has been credited on her self-titled 2013 album. The lawsuit claims that in July, 2015, Younce requested Fulks' email and would send the plaintiff a note acknowledging that he had received his "info" with invitation to submit a treatment for consideration by Columbia.
Five months later, the filming of the Lemonade trailer and film began.
The complaint lists several elements Fulks believes were lifted from Palinoia for Lemonade, including “graffiti and persons with heads down,” “red persons with eyes obscured,” “parking garage,” “black and white eyes,” “the grass scene,” “side-lit ominous figures,” and more.
Another victory for Queen 