Is A Documentary A “Movie”? LeBron James, Drake, And Future Face $10 Million Lawsuit Over “Black Ice” Hockey Documentary

ByJoseph Gibsonon September 13, 2022inArticles›Celebrity News

“Black Ice,” an upcoming documentary about the history of racially segregated hockey leagues, is premiering at the Toronto Film Festival this year, and counts among its producers such luminaries as LeBron James , Drake , and Future . But The New York Post reports that they’re facing a $10 million lawsuit from Billy Hunter, former federal prosecutor and longtime head of the NBA Players Association, who says the rights to make the documentary were rightfully his.

The suit alleges that Hunter held the exclusive rights to make a film based on the non-fiction book “Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895 to 1925” by George and Darril Fosty, who are also named as defendants in the suit. It goes on:

“While the defendants LeBron James, Drake and Maverick Carter [LeBron’s business partner] are internationally known and renowned in their respective fields of basketball and music, it does not afford them the right to steal another’s intellectual property.”

<img loading=“lazy” src=“https://vz.cnwimg.com/thumb-900x/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/GettyImages-1233949657.jpg" onerror=“this.onerror=null;this.src=‘https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhe7F7TRXHtjiKvHb5vS7DmnxvpHiDyoYyYvm1nHB3Qp2_w3BnM6A2eq4v7FYxCC9bfZt3a9vIMtAYEKUiaDQbHMg-ViyGmRIj39MLp0bGFfgfYw1Dc9q_H-T0wiTm3l0Uq42dETrN9eC8aGJ9_IORZsxST1AcLR7np1koOfcc7tnHa4S8Mwz_xD9d0=s16000';" alt=“Is A Documentary A “Movie”? LeBron James, Drake, And Future Face $10 Million Lawsuit Over “Black Ice” Hockey Documentary - 1”>

VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

Hunter says he paid $265,000 to the authors for the rights to their book, but that they turned around and signed another deal with James, Drake, Future, and the film’s other producers. When he confronted them, Hunter says they claimed that as a documentary, the “Black Ice” film doesn’t fall under the agreement they’d made, which they argued would apply to a dramatic feature film or TV series instead. In the suit, Hunter says he isn’t buying it:

“A documentary is still a ‘motion picture’ and an ‘audiovisual adaptation’ and any claim to the contrary is absurd and made in bad faith.”

Hunter considered the “Black Ice” movie to be a passion project of his, citing his long-time fascination with the book and its subject, and that when he refused to sell his rights to the story, the film’s producers went around him and made the movie in violation of those rights. In addition to $10 million in damages, he also wants a cut of the film’s profits.

None of the parties named in the suit have responded publicly to the lawsuit as of this writing.

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Future’s Next Big Career Goal: Become A Billionaire

ByJoseph Gibsonon November 30, 2022inArticles›Celebrity News

Reaching billionaire status is a goal that few entertainers reach, whether in the hip hop world or anywhere else in show business. To do so requires not just the good fortune of success but a generous proportion of business acumen as well. Which is why only a few artists have managed the feat. Now, Future says he wants to join the club in an interview with Billboard.

Future released his ninth studio album earlier this year, and the Billboard interviewer asked him what his plans are for his tenth. Instead of delving into his creative ambitions, Future put his goals into purely financial terms:

“My main focus right now is just to do something I never done. One thing I never done is make a billion dollars. I ain’t done that, so I’m focused on that.”

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Jerritt Clark/Getty Images

That almost sounds like it could be bragging or self-promotion, but apparently Future is taking the goal of being a billionaire seriously, elaborating that he’s asked unnamed billionaires for advice on how to attain that rare status:

“Sometimes I ask questions, if I meet a billionaire, like, ‘How’d you get to where you got?’ Or, ‘How’d you accomplish everything that you have?’” he explained. “I have those conversations with different people, successful people. But the way I get mine might be different. It just helps me to understand that I’m on the right path when I talk to people that have billions.”

He continues, saying the billionaires he’s gotten advice from seem to think he might just make it into the club:

“When I hear them talk, I be like, ‘OK, I’m on the right path.’ They reassure me that I’m doing the right thing. No matter what my music career is, I want to just be able to have that friend, somebody that always has my back, [and] just priceless individuals getting me wherever I need to go. Even when it’s going crazy for me, I know I have priceless people around me. I got unconditional love.”

Of course, it’s worth pointing out that even music billionaires like Jay-Z or Rihanna didn’t reach billionaire status purely through their recording and performing careers, investing heavily in other industries in order to make it happen. So it’s unlikely that Future would become a billionaire just on the commercial strength of his next record, even if it’s a massive smash. And it’s also unlikely that Future doesn’t know that, so it’s a safe bet that if he’s serious about his billionaire dreams they involve a lot more than just making music.

Future has already seen plenty of success in the music world with a very respectable net worth of $50 million, but he’ll have to see quite a bit more to hit the billion dollar mark. Stay tuned over the next few years to see if he actually makes it.

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