Dr. Dre‘s ‘Straight Outta Compton‘ has fresh legal trouble on its box office-rocking hands.
Details below…
N.W.A’s manager filed a $110 million lawsuit against the movie hours ago for the alleged defamation of his character in the biopic.
Jerry Heller claims the movie falsely portrayed him as a negative driving force that split the Hip-Hop group up and took advantage of its members by withholding their money and spending it on lobster brunches.
Unfortunately, the movie’s creators aren’t the only ones Heller has taken aim at. For, the suit also forces NBC Universal, Legendary Pictures, Comptown Records, the artists who were portrayed in the movie and its director F. Gary Gray.
Heller and parties connected to Easy-E are said to have come to an agreement they “shall not make any statements, directly or indirectly in writing, orally, or in any other form, which disparage in any way the other.”
Heller also says through the lawsuit that he entered into an oral contract with various parties to collaborate on a book, and that those parties prepared at least four screenplays with two being titled “Straight Outta Compton.” In 2006, his book was published by Simon and Schuster. The former N.W.A. manager is now asserting that this year’s film was based on those screenplays.
He also claims that the movie’s creatives did not ask for his permission to have him represented in the project and claims that their representation of him has tarnished his reputation.
N.W.A is yet to respond.