UPDATED 10/27, 5:10 p.m. ET: A Georgia judge dismissed the lawsuit filed by the estate of Judith Dim Evans, Variety reports.
“The lawsuit was dismissed, unconditionally,” Amazon's attorney, Russell Smith, said in a statement. “The lawsuit is over. Sacha Baron Cohen was deeply grateful for the opportunity to work with Judith Dim Evans, whose compassion and courage as a Holocaust survivor has touched the hearts of millions of people who have seen the film. Judith’s life is a powerful rebuke to those who deny the Holocaust, and with this film and his activism, Sacha Baron Cohen will continue his advocacy to combat Holocaust denial around the world.”
Amazon had a release form that was signed by Evans.
“It’s very clear she started to sign on the signature blank,” Smith explained. “She was signing on the wrong blank, then printed her signature. We had a witness, and they had no evidence whatsoever.”
See original story below.
The estate of a Holocaust survivor has filed a lawsuit against the creators of Borat after the team allegedly informed her they were filming was for a documentary, not a comedy movie. Sacha Baron Cohen and the rest of the team behind the upcoming Borat sequel, which hits Amazon Prime Video on Oct. 23, were hit with the lawsuit this week. TMZ reports the estate is demanding the scenes filmed for the movie are removed ahead of its release.
Judith Dim Evans' estate has claimed that the late Holocaust survivor, who died this year, was contacted by the team behind the Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm and told she would be speaking about the Holocaust for a documentary. Producers allegedly told her that the doc would focus on Jewish culture and the Holocaust, which wasn't the case.
The estate added that she traveled to Atlanta with a friend to be interviewed by Cohen, and at no point was she told it was a comedy shoot. When she found out, she was reportedly "horrified and upset." Her estate says she was offered to be paid for participating, but she refused. The suit was filed against Amazon and Oak Springs Productions on behalf of her daughter, and not only are they demanding all footage of Evans be cut, they're also seeking damages of $75,000.
Entitled Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, the highly anticipated follow-up to the 2006 classic has already garnered its fair share of controversy. Before the film was even announced, footage of Sacha Baron Cohen crashing an alt-right rally went viral, and full-time ghoul Rudy Giuliani said he called the police on Cohen after he was almost tricked into an interview that was presumably for the film.
