Marvin Gaye III is planning to sue programmer creator Lee Daniels and network Fox as he claims they stole his idea for the drama series, TMZ reports.
Gaye claims to have registered a treatment on a show called Diamonds & Ballads, aka Those Sons of Riches!, with the Writers Guild of America in 2010, with the proposed drama pitched as ”a music based ‘black’ and ‘hip’ version of Dynasty … with a little Sopranos.”
When he shopped the proposal round to TV executives, Gaye told them it was loosely based on his own family, as well as Motown producer Berry Gordy and his loved ones, and he claims some of the people he approached were associates of Daniels.
Gaye believes the Empire boss previously unwittingly confessed to stealing the idea after the show made it big. Drawing comparisons to The Sopranos, Daniels said last year: ”I wanted to make a black Dynasty. ”
He is now planning to file a lawsuit for an unspecified sum. His lawyer said: ”We understand that three things can’t be hidden for long: the Sun, the Moon and the Truth!”
The Gaye family previously launched a successful legal action against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams over their track Blurred Lines. A judge ruled there were distinct similarities between the track and Marvin’s 1977 hit Got to Give It Up, and the two stars had to pay the late star’s estate $7.3 million
