Veteran filmmaker Zeb Ejiro and actress Ann Njemanze, are in court over the trademark of the movie title, Domitilla.
Just so you know Domitilla was first produced in 1996 by Zeb Ejiro who got Ann Njemanze to play the titular character alongside other veteran actors.
More than twenty-five years down the line, Ann Njemanze is now suing Zeb Ejiro alongside Filmone Entertainment and Film Trybe Media over the soon to be released, ‘Domitilla: The Reboot’
In the lawsuit, the Ann Njemanze is demanding fifty million naira, while also asking for five million naira for the cost of litigation and lawyers’ fees incurred. She is also seeking an order of injunction restraining the defendants or any other person from using her trademark (Domitilla) or any other mark that is deceptively similar to the registered trademark.
Responding to the lawsuit, Zeb Ejiro is also serving the actress with a countersuit for five hundred million naira describing her lawsuit as a gold-digging exercise.
Zeb Ejiro in a recent interview said, “I offered her five million naira, not knowing she had gone behind me to trademark my intellectual property. I have been using the name for a long time. I have taken ‘Domitilla’ to film festivals all over the world. We had to abandon the script and start a new script. The next thing was she came with the police calling a thief in public. She even went with the police to FilmOne, our partner, to search their office. I tried to reach out to her, but she refused to pick up my calls. I had to ask the heads of different guilds to intervene.”
He also revealed that he did offer her a role in the remake. He said, “Now it’s time for a reboot, but because she is now much older, we decided to give her a role as the aunt to one of the characters, but she was asking for seventeen million naira for only five scenes.”
The reboot of ‘Domitilla’ is set to be released soon, and just like the original, it follows the story of four sex workers, the choices they make and the domino effects of their choices.
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