Journalist Must Admit He Embellished To Sue Over Tupac Biopic

Journalist Kevin Powell has sued Lionsgate and others associated with the recent Tupac biopic, “All Eyez on Me,” for taking inspiration from his series of articles about the rapper in Vibe Magazine in the 90s. How could he know that that was where the film’s creators got their inspiration? Because, the lawsuit states: “While some of the content in these articles was factual, some portions of the article were changed or embellished by plaintiff.” What Powell recognized was a character in the film named Nigel. “In fact, the name and character of ‘Nigel’ in the Original Work was specifically created by [Powell] without the authority or encouragement of Tupac Shakur,” the complaint states. “This made up character of Nigel was the embellishment of a real life character that was central to the narrative in Plaintiff’s articles. This made up character was copied and pasted into defendant’s film to play the same central character and role in the Infringing Work as he did in the Original Work.”