Exclusive: Michigan State University wants nothing to do with Ben Cory Jones’ film about the school’s legendary Black Spartans football team.
“Please be advised that the University will not partner with you or Black Spartans Productions on this project,” Brian Quinn, Msu VP of Legal Affairs and General Counsel, wrote to Black Spartans producer Rochelle Claerbaut on Monday. “Nor does the University consent to this project. Additionally, the University is hereby providing notice that you, Black Spartan Productions, and any other person or entity associated with the project must not infringe upon any of the University’s intellectual property.”
Quinn’s email correspondence, obtained by Deadline, was in reply to a September 14 email from Claerbaut seeking to link up with Msu on the project. The email from the producer and daughter of Duffy Daugherty: A Man Ahead of His Time author David Claerbaut was sent the day after various...
“Please be advised that the University will not partner with you or Black Spartans Productions on this project,” Brian Quinn, Msu VP of Legal Affairs and General Counsel, wrote to Black Spartans producer Rochelle Claerbaut on Monday. “Nor does the University consent to this project. Additionally, the University is hereby providing notice that you, Black Spartan Productions, and any other person or entity associated with the project must not infringe upon any of the University’s intellectual property.”
Quinn’s email correspondence, obtained by Deadline, was in reply to a September 14 email from Claerbaut seeking to link up with Msu on the project. The email from the producer and daughter of Duffy Daugherty: A Man Ahead of His Time author David Claerbaut was sent the day after various...
- 9/28/2022
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
(Updated with producers’ statement) Exclusive: Surviving members and relatives of the famed Black Spartans want a movie about the 1966 college football co-champions consigned to the sidelines.
“This letter is directed to various producers, directors, actors and others who we understand are associated with the motion picture Black Spartans, which purports to tell our clients’ stories,” says a correspondence sent Tuesday night to director-writer Ben Cory Jones, producer James Velissaris and his various aliases, as well as actors J. Alphonse Nicholson, Neal McDonough (who also is a producer) and others (read it here). “However, this film is being produced without our clients’ input or approval and in violation of their rights to publicity and privacy and in defamation of their characters.”
“As we and our clients have not seen the full Black Spartans script (and naturally the finished film) we cannot identify with more particularity any defamatory material,” attorney Devin McRae...
“This letter is directed to various producers, directors, actors and others who we understand are associated with the motion picture Black Spartans, which purports to tell our clients’ stories,” says a correspondence sent Tuesday night to director-writer Ben Cory Jones, producer James Velissaris and his various aliases, as well as actors J. Alphonse Nicholson, Neal McDonough (who also is a producer) and others (read it here). “However, this film is being produced without our clients’ input or approval and in violation of their rights to publicity and privacy and in defamation of their characters.”
“As we and our clients have not seen the full Black Spartans script (and naturally the finished film) we cannot identify with more particularity any defamatory material,” attorney Devin McRae...
- 9/14/2022
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
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