Universal’s $301M Movie Hit With Lawsuit Three Years After Theatrical Release

Migration is the subject of a new lawsuit.

Released in 2023, Illumination’s Migration hails from directors Guylo Homsy and Benjamin Renner, and follows a family of ducks as they attempt to convince their overprotective father to migrate from New England to Jamaica. The film, which was distributed by Universal Pictures, features a screenplay by Mike White and a story by White, Benjamin Renner, and Ken Daurio.

Per TheWrap, White, Universal Pictures, Illumination, and White have now been hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit, with writer Kenneth Giavara alleging that the film steals elements of his feature film script, South for the Winter. Giavara filed the lawsuit on Friday in the Central District of California.

In the complaint, Giavara, who wrote South for the Winter in 2007, alleges that “Defendants brazenly have infringed upon and incorporated numerous [protectable] elements from ‘South for the Winter’ into ‘Migration,’ including plot, sequence, characters, theme, dialogue, mood and setting.” He adds that “similarities between the movie ‘Migration’ and ‘South for the Winter’ are so substantial that it seems unlikely that the former could possibly have been created independently from the latter.”

The lawsuit goes on to add further details about the alleged story and character similarities between the two projects. It claims that both follow an anthropomorphic bird family in New England, with the father figure being overprotective.

​​​​​​​Both are also said to feature a curious kid who wants to see the world, a road trip that begins at a pond in Central Park in New York City, an older mentor bird character, and a conclusion in a tropical location. In South for the Winter, the overprotective father is named Mac, while in Migration he’s named Mack.

Giavara’s screenplay, which he registered with the WGA in 2007, won first place at the Fresh Voices competition, one of several competitions he participated in. The first-place win, Giavara says, resulted in the script being “distributed to hundreds if not thousands of companies and persons in the movie industry in Hollywood.”

With his lawsuit, Giavara is seeking a writer’s credit on Migration, in addition to damages and profits derived from the film. Universal Pictures, Illumination, and White have yet to comment on the lawsuit.

The Migration voice cast includes Kumail Nanjiani, Elizabeth Banks, Danny DeVito, Isabela Merced, Keegan-Michael Key, and Awkwafina. The film grossed $301 million worldwide on an estimated budget of $72 million, making it a substantial commercial success. Critically, the movie was also broadly well-received, sporting a 73% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and a stronger 87% from audiences.

White is a well known and successful writer in Hollywood, penning the scripts for projects like School of Rock (2003), Pitch Perfect 3 (2017), and Despicable Me 4 (2024). He also created The White Lotus for HBO, which is confirmed to be returning for season 4.

It remains to be seen how the Migration lawsuit will play out, but copyright infringement lawsuits are nothing new in Hollywood. Regardless of how things unfold, the Illumination movie’s legacy is evidently now going to be a little more complicated.

Release Date

December 22, 2023

Director

Benjamin Renner

Writers

Mike White

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