The Inquisitr
Monday, December 03, 2012
Fugees rapper Pras Michel is suing the director of a Somali pirate documentary over some of the film’s footage, according to TMZ
Michel was reportedly taken hostage by a group of pirates off the coast of Eastern Africa back in 2009. In order to tell this story to the masses, the Fugees rapper is putting together a film called Paper Dreams that chronicles his life-threatening encounter with these nefarious individuals.
The lawsuit explains that Michel contributed over $70,000 of his own money to the production of the film. However, once everything was in the proverbial can, the filmmaker refused to turn over the footage. Now the Pras is taking him to court in an effort to reclaim the material.
Director Marshall Tyler’s attorneys explained that, while Michel may have financed the feature, the copyright still belongs to his client.
“Pras is trying to assert ownership on material that Marshall owns the copyright to,” the lawyer explained.
In addition to the footage from the Somali pirate documentary, the Fugees rapper is suing to recover the money he put into the production. A judge has yet to rule on the case as of this writing.
Although Michel has stated that he was captured by Somali pirates during the filming of the aforementioned motion pictures, it’s rumored that Pras and his crew only witnessed some nasty things taking place.
According to Hip Hop Wired, Michel isn’t the only Fugees member that has encountered some legal woes as of late. Not only is Lauryn Hill in trouble for owing nearly $1.6 million in back taxes, Wyclef Jean’s Yele foundation is taking some heat despite having been shut down in October.
Now that the Rugees rapper has sued the director of the Somali pirate documentary Paper Dreams, it’s unclear when the motion picture will see the light of day.
Source: The Inquisitr