Koki Nagahama/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures
Will Smith Dragged Into $1 Million Federal Court Battle Over Box Office Bomb ‘Gemini Man’
Will Smith was dragged into a seven-figure lawsuit brought by a science fiction author who claims the actor’s film Gemini Man ripped off his work, In Touch can exclusively report.
According to court documents obtained by In Touch, a man named Kissinger Sibanda sued Will, 55, Skydance Productions, Gemini Pictures, Paramount Pictures, David Ellison and various other defendants.
The suit accuses the defendants of copyright infringement. Kissinger describes himself as an American/South African national. He said he is an attorney and also a science fiction writer.
He said he wrote a science fiction novel titled The Return to Gibraltar which he released in 2011.
His suit said, “The book details an African American who is cloned and used in a time traveling program without his permission. In marketing the book, plaintiff Sibanda asserted that it would be a good fit for Will Smith as the lead.”
“In 2019, Defendants released Gemini Man, directed by Ang Lee and starring Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, and Benedict Wong. The [film] follows a former hitman who is targeted by a younger clone of himself while on the run from the government,” Kissinger explained.
“The defendants struggled to make the movie until plaintiff released his book in 2011, thereafter they changed the film’s marketing strategy – taking themes, plots, characterizations, context and cultural subtexts from the book to create their movie, Gemini Man.”
Gemini Man was originally written in 1997 by a writer named Darren Lemke. The film was in development for over 20 years.
The movie had various A-list stars attached to the project until Will finally signed on. The screenplay is credited to Darren, David Benioff and Billy Ray.
Kissinger claims he shared his book idea with Will’s stunt double in 2012.
“[Kissinger] does not recall the actual name of the stunt double … The stunt double had recently returned from Cape Town, South Africa, and limited discovery can produce the name given that defendants have all the names of Will Smith’s stunt doubles on file,” his suit claimed.
He said he also sent a copy to William Morris Endeavor, one of the biggest talent agencies in Hollywood. In his lawsuit, Kissinger argues that the film stole from his work.
He said, “The publication of The Return to Gibraltar, provided a fee meal for the defendants; not only did the book detail the cultural importance of the protagonist as a black person in a cinematic form but it explained cloning and its science in the context of a complete story; not just “ideas and facts” but a complete narrative pace and climax. In addition to the literary tool of deception in a cloned army used against the protagonist. Interesting enough, the protagonist in The Return to Gibraltar is a Harvard man, similarly to the younger version of the Will Smith cloned in Gemini Man.
In his lawsuit, Kissinger said he sent a legal letter to the defendants in 2020 but never heard back. “To date defendants have not offered any monetary settlement to plaintiff, only a zero-dollar walk away,” he said.
The lawsuit demanded $1.7 million in damages. Will and the other defendants have yet to respond.
The film had a reported budget of $138 million before marketing but only brought in $173 million worldwide.
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