Rapper wanted to make documentary, hasn’t seen a frame of it yet

Dec 3, 2012 09:23 GMT  ·  By

Fugees rapper Pras Michel is taking a film director to court after he refused to hand over to him footage shot for a piracy documentary. The film was supposed to be called “Paper Dreams,” it has emerged.

An older passion project of Pras’, the documentary was also supposed to show an incident in which the rapper himself was involved, he claims in court documents obtained by TMZ.

Moreover, “Paper Dreams” would have offered an insight into the lives and exploits of pirates off the East African coast, the celebrity writes.

As it happens, as of now, the rapper is yet to see a single frame from the movie, because the director is refusing to part with the footage even though it’s not his to hold on to.

“According to legal docs filed Monday, Pras hired Marshall Tyler back in 2009 to direct a documentary film called ‘Paper Dreams’ – about the rapper's real-life, death-defying incident with pirates off the East African coast,” TMZ writes.

“In the suit, Pras claims he was ‘taken captive’ by Somali pirates sometime in 2009 – however multiple reports say Pras, and his film crew, merely witnessed the famous capture of the Maersk Alabama in April 2009,” the same media outlet reports.

In the suit, Pras alleges to have invested money in the project to expedite its completion, but Marshall is acting like he’s the sole owner of the footage.

Admittedly, the rapper invested $70,000 (€53,713) of his own money, which covered “filming and travel expenses.”

“Pras claims he's repeatedly asked for the goods, but never heard a word back. Now he's suing to get the footage, or at least recover his 70 grand, plus damages,” TMZ reports.

“Pras is trying to assert ownership on material that Marshall owns the copyright to,” a rep for the film director, Marshall, says in response to the lawsuit.