‘The Blind Side’ Producers On Michael Oher Lawsuit Controversy: “Many Mischaracterizations & Uninformed Opinions”

deadline.com:

Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove, the co-founders of The Blind Side financier Alcon Entertainment, who also served as producers for the supposedly true-life family drama, have addressed controversy stemming from a recent lawsuit filed by pic’s subject Michael Oher, claiming there have been “many mischaracterizations and uninformed opinions” put out about the situation, and that the film they made is “as true today as it was 14 years ago.” “THE BLIND SIDE is verifiably authentic and will never be a lie or fake,” the pair stated, “regardless of the familial ups and downs that have occurred subsequent to the film.” Former NFL star Oher’s petition filed in Tennessee court alleges that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, the couple depicted in the film as his good-hearted adoptive parents, tricked him into a conservatorship to secure legal authority over business deals in his name, depriving him of profits from the film while mischaracterizing the true nature of their relationship.

The Tuohys’ attorney Marty Singer referred to the suit as part of a “shakedown effort” on the part of Oher, with Michael Lewis, the author of The Blind Side‘s source material, also weighing in to suggest that “the Hollywood studio system” is more at fault for Oher’s lack of profit participation than the Tuohys personally.

While addressing the legitimacy of the story The Blind Side was telling, Alcon’s Johnson and Kosove also today spotlighted “the business side of the equation” in great detail, addressing the profit participations (or lack thereof) at the center of Oher’s suit. “The deal that was made by Fox for the Tuohy’s and Michael Oher’s life rights was consistent with the marketplace at that time for the rights of relatively unknown individuals,”