‘Black Spartans’ Movie Crew Members Owed Unpaid Wages, Lawsuit Alleges

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The producer, co-writer and financier of “Black Spartans” faces a lawsuit that alleges many crew members on the movie were not paid for “significant work” performed over the last month of filming in Atlanta. 

The 13-page proposed collective action against James Velissaris alleges that although production on “Black Spartans,” a movie about the national co-championship-winning 1966 Michigan State football team whose coach, Duffy Daugherty, pioneered the recruiting of Black players from the segregated South, wrapped in October, the plaintiff, a transportation captain on the project, and other crew members still have not been paid all wages owed. 

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Per the case, the plaintiff and other crew members regularly worked more than 40 hours per week on the film, and often as many as 90 hours per week, from August to October 2022. The suit alleges Velissaris “independently made the decision not to pay Plaintiff and similarly situated film production crew members for work they performed in or around the final month of filming.” 

According to entertainment publication Deadline, Michigan State University “wants nothing to do with” the Ben Cory Jones-directed “Black Spartans.” In a September statement, the school said that it would “not partner” with the production company making the movie, and did not consent to the project. 

Deadline writes that multiple surviving members and relatives of the 1966 co-championship team sent a cease-and-desist letter to Jones, Velissaris and actors in the movie, claiming that the film was being made without their input or approval and “in violation of their rights to publicity and privacy and in defamation of their characters.” An attorney wrote on behalf of some 1965 and 1966 MSU players that “the source material for the film appears unreliable, and that you proceed at your peril,” Deadline wrote. 

The lawsuit looks to cover all crew members on “Black Spartans” who were not paid proper minimum and overtime wages in or around October 2022. 

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