Hoops star LeBron James and rappers Drake and Future are accused in a new $10 million lawsuit of stealing the “intellectual property rights” to a movie – “Black Ice” – about Canada’s old segregated hockey league for black players. has taught The Post.
Billy Hunter, former head of the NBA Players Association and former federal prosecutor, is demanding a share of the documentary’s profits and $10 million in damages, in an explosive complaint filed with the Manhattan Supreme Court alleging that he is the sole owner. is from the documentary. legal rights to produce any movie about the Colored Hockey League that existed from 1895 through the 1930s.
“While the defendants LeBron James, Drake and Maverick Carter [LeBron’s business partner] are internationally known and renowned in their respective fields of basketball and music, it does not entitle them to steal other people’s intellectual property,” said the suit filed by Hunter’s attorney, Larry Hutcher.
In the lawsuit, Hunter accuses defendants, including four-time NBA champion and MVP James and “Nice for What” singer and Canadian Drake and their entertainment companies, of making a deal behind his back with the authors of the acclaimed book that the documentary is based on – “Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895 to 1925.”
The authors, George and Darril Fosty, are also listed as defendants, citing breach of contract for alleged breach of the agreement that gives Hunter the rights to produce a black hockey league movie and instead a side deal with Team LeBron. and Drake working out.
The suit says Hunter paid the authors a total of $265,000 for the film rights to the story.
The documentary, directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Hubert Davis, will be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10.
“I don’t think they believed property rights would be litigated. They thought I was going to leave. They gambled,” Hunter, 79, who also briefly played professional football in the 1960s, told The Post.
In a possible pun, Hunter’s attorney, Hutcher, said it’s “very ironic” that James and Drake, who “cherish their brands,” would be “so arrogant” to violate someone else’s movie rights. James began his career with his hometown of Cleveland Cavaliers.
Hunter, a long-time black civil rights activist, said he was fascinated by the story of the black-only professional hockey league, reminiscent of the segregated Negro professional baseball league in the United States and the pursuit of civil rights to break the color barrier. Hockey is Canada’s national sport.
“I just said, ‘Wow. That must be a movie,'” he said.
The lawsuit also lists James’ entertainment companies – The Springhill Company and Uninterrupted Canada – as defendants along with Dreamcrew Entertainment, Drake’s entertainment company, whose birth name is Aubrey Graham, and Future (legal name Adel Nur), and the publishing house of Fosty’s firm, Stryker. Indigo and First Take Entertainment, a film production company.
The indictment alleges that when Hunter confronted the authors after hearing of the separate “Black Ice” movie deal involving James and Drake, the Fostys “speciously claimed” that the “competing company” did not violate its “exclusive worldwide license” or movie rights. because the “documentary” was different and did not violate the agreement.
“A documentary is still a ‘film’ and an ‘audiovisual adaptation’ and
any claim to the contrary is absurd and made in bad faith,” Hutcher said in the Hunter case.
Hunter and the Fostys signed an “option deal” for a movie adaptation
of the “Black Ice” story on March 25, 2019. He laid down $10,000.
About 18 months later, in October 2020, Hunter received a call from
George Fosty, who told him that the authors had been approached by others
producers who wanted to make a documentary based on the “Black Ice” book – Vinamy Virmani and Scott Moore of First Entertainment.
The First Entertainment representatives said in a Zoom call that they were working with James and his company Springhill to obtain the rights to produce a “Black Ice” documentary and had received partial funding from the Canadian Film Fund for the project. .
But Hunter “stated unequivocally that this was a passion project of his and that he had no interest in selling his exclusive option or any part of his rights to anyone else,” the lawsuit said.
Hunter then, through his attorney, sent a letter of breach of contract to the defendants on November 1, 2021, after seeing a story in the Canadian press that Drake would be executive producer of the documentary “Black Ice.”
He also paid the Fostys $250,000 in February 2022 to retain “exclusive worldwide rights” to any “audiovisual” adaptation of the “Black Ice” story.
The Hunter case accuses the Fostys and their publishing house of breach of contract and the James and Drake teams of “wrongful interference.”
The lawsuit says the “Uninterrupted Defendants” – Team LeBron – offered the Fostys $100,000 to acquire the “already optional” rights to produce a documentary on the “Black Ice” story, and the authors agreed to pay 3% of the total film budget.
“The uninterrupted defendants paid those sums to incite the authors to infringe”
their agreement with the plaintiff,” the Hunter case claims.
The court papers said the James team then sought the support of additional investors, most notably Dreamcrew Entertainment, a co-venture between Drake and Future.
“The acts of the Dreamcrew Defendants and the Continuous Defendants were and are”
intentional and performed for the purpose of interfering with the plaintiff’s legal rights. Each of the Dreamcrew Defendants and Continuous Defendants acted maliciously, as evidenced by the high price they paid for the dual option,” the Hunter case alleges.
Representatives from James, Drake and the Fostys and their firms had no immediate comment.
Hunter, who lives in Harlem, had an argument with the NBA players’ union. He was ousted in 2013 after serving as union director since 1996, and the two sides reached a confidential settlement after he filed a counterclaim over his replacement.