‘Black Spartans’ Film Thrown Cease-And-Desist Letter From Famed Players & Families; Defamation Lawsuit Threatened

deadline.com:

(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 goes on to say on behalf of 1965 and 1966 Michigan State University Football players Gene Washington, Jimmy Raye, the late Bubba Smith, Bob Apisa and their families. “However, we can and have put you on notice that the source material for the film appears unreliable, and that you proceed at your peril – any defamatory content will have been published with actual malice.”The partner at Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae LLP also noted inconsistencies, misrepresentations and getting it “exactly backward” in pages from the Black Spartans script that Jones has posted on social media.

Black Spartans is based in part on David Claerbaut’s 2018 book Duffy Daugherty: A Man Ahead of His Time. On the field as Civil Rights legislation and protests were