-- but a new lawsuit claims that the tennis coach had already sold his life rights to someone else.
In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Tuesday, TW3 Entertainment and Power Move Multi Media claim that the upcoming film, produced by Smith's production company, Overbrook Entertainment, and Warner Bros., is based on a multi-million dollar breach of contract. "This case presents an unfortunate and tawdry situation: the cold and calculating misappropriation and interference with plaintiffs’ intellectual property," the court documents state."Plaintiffs' good faith and contractually protected efforts to bring an amazing story into visual art form were met with defendants’ greed and disregard for Plaintiff’s existing rights."
Warner Bros., Overbrook, Williams and his son and business partner Chavoita Lesane, and production company Star Thrower Entertainment are named as defendants in the lawsuit. TW3 Entertainment and Power Move Multimedia claim they are the true owners of Williams' story because they bought the rights to his 2014 memoir,in 2017. They say they bought the rights from Lesane, who allegedly had been given power of attorney by his father for"purposes of dealing with film and media rights for his book." Lesane was allegedly involved in an initial draft of a script for the project too. for $1 million.