Michael Oher, whose story was told in The Blind Side, alleges that the Tuohy family never actually adopted him & exploited him for millions.

Update: Sean Tuohy has responded to the allegations made by Michael Oher that he and his family tricked Oher into a conservatorship and made millions off of the success of The Blind Side.

Sean Tuohy told the Daily Memphian that the conservatorship came about because they were told they couldn’t legally adopt anyone over the age of 18. “We contacted lawyers who had told us that we couldn’t adopt over the age of 18; the only thing we could do was to have a conservatorship,” Tuohy said. “We were so concerned it was on the up-and-up that we made sure the biological mother came to court.” He added that he’d “of course” end the conservatorship if that’s what Michael Oher wanted.

When it comes to the alleged millions made from The Blind Side, Sean Tuohy said that they didn’t make any money off the movie aside from what book author Michael Lewis shared with them. “We didn’t make any money off the movie,” Tuohy said. “Well, Michael Lewis [‘The Blind Side’ book author] gave us half of his share. Everybody in the family got an equal share, including Michael. It was about $14,000, each.” I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of this story.

Original article follows:

The Blind Side told the story of Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized Black teenager who becomes an All-American football player and first-round NFL draft pick with the help of his caring adoptive parents played by Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw. The feel-good movie was a huge success in 2009, with Bullock even winning the Academy Award for Best Actress, but the truth seems to be much darker.

ESPN reports that Michael Oher has filed a 14-page petition in a Tennessee probate court that alleges that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy never legally adopted him. Not only that but they also tricked him into signing a document making them his conservators. The pair allegedly used this power to make a deal which earned them and their two biological children millions of dollars in royalties from The Blind Side while Michael Oher got nothing. For the record, The Blind Side grossed $309 million worldwide on a reported $29 million budget.

“The lie of Michael’s adoption is one upon which Co-Conservators Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy have enriched themselves at the expense of their Ward, the undersigned Michael Oher,” the legal filing says. “Michael Oher discovered this lie to his chagrin and embarrassment in February of 2023, when he learned that the Conservatorship to which he consented on the basis that doing so would make him a member of the Tuohy family, in fact provided him no familial relationship with the Tuohys.“

The petition is seeking to end the Tuohys’ conservatorship over Michael Oher and stop them from using his name and likeness. It also wants a full accounting of money earned and for Oher to be paid his fair share. “Since at least August of 2004, Conservators have allowed Michael, specifically, and the public, generally, to believe that Conservators adopted Michael and have used that untruth to gain financial advantages for themselves and the foundations which they own or which they exercise control,” the petition says. “All monies made in said manner should in all conscience and equity be disgorged and paid over to the said ward, Michael Oher.” In a 2007 contract, Oher seemingly signed away the life rights to his story “without any payment whatsoever,” but the filing states that he “has no recollection of signing that contract, and even if he did, no one explained its implications to him.“

The Tuohy family hasn’t yet responded to the allegations, but their attorney, Steve Farese, said that they would be filing a legal response in the coming weeks.

Tom Hanks was concerned for the mental health of Austin Butler after Elvis and offered him the leading role in Masters of the Air to help.

We all know the degree in which Austin Butler immersed himself in the role of Elvis Presley, and the actor told The Times of London that his co-star Tom Hanks actually grew concerned about his mental health.

Austin Butler said that Tom Hanks told him: “You have immersed yourself so deeply in ‘Elvis’ that, for your mental health, it would be wise to go straight into something else. If you just jump off the train, you might have emotional whiplash… and, you know, I’ve got this thing I’m producing.’” That project happened to Masters of the Air, the upcoming World War II miniseries for Apple TV+ that follows in the footsteps of Band of Brothers and The Pacific. Butlers stars in the series as Major Gale Cleven alongside Barry Keogan and Callum Turner.

Austin Butler added that Elvis forced him “to go to the very edge of what is possible, and not every experience will be like that. I don’t think I’ll ever have an experience like that again, but if I have to really dig, it makes me feel alive.“

After completing production on Masters of the Air, Austin Butler moved on to pair of movies set to be released at the end of the year, including Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders and Denis Villeneueve’s Dune: Part Two. “I was stretching myself and living within the shoes of somebody else for a bit that’s very, very different from Elvis,” Butler told Vanity Fair. “I never want to say I shed Elvis or washed it off because it makes it sound like something that I want to leave me. It was such a gift and it was such an amazing time. But as far as the thing where you’re all consumed with something, my mind couldn’t think about anything that wasn’t Elvis-related—and I didn’t want to for over two years.” Butler plays Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in the Dune sequel and sports a look far removed from Elvis.

Masters of the Air doesn’t have an official release date yet, but Dune: Part Two is slated to be released on November 3rd followed by The Bikeriders on December 1st.

Peter Jackson has joined Steven Spielberg and Jordan Peele in praising Australian horror movie Talk to Me.

Talk to Me has garnered nearly unanimous praise since its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, even going on to win big at the Fantasia International Film Festival just this week. Now, Talk to Me has earned some major backing from yet another Oscar winner, with New Zealand native praising the Australian horror film.

Speaking with Ahi Films (via Newshub) – a distributor of the film – Peter Jackson said that Talk to Me is “relentlessly scary and disturbing – in the best possible way”, adding that it “isn’t just good – it’s very very good. The best, most intense, horror movie I’ve enjoyed in years.” That’s some high praise for a guy that started off his career with two of the most relentless horror movies of their era, Bad Taste and Braindead (aka Dead Alive). While Talk to Me leans more supernatural than, say, lawnmower bloodbath, that Jackson has shown support for the movie can only help the cause of first-time directors Danny and Michael Philippou. This adds to the reported championing that has come from the likes of Steven Spielberg and Jordan Peele.

On the JoBlo front, our own Chris Bumbray gave Talk to Me an 8/10 out of Sundance, saying horror fans will love it, some of its images are downright disturbing and it could mark the beginning of a noteworthy career for the directors.

Talk to Me is poised to be another hit for A24, pulling in $36.5 million so far on a $4.5 million budget. And yes, there will be more movies, as the directors are clearly beyond ready to expand, claiming they already shot a prequel and have plans to helm a sequel as well, all of which gives off vibes of Ti West’s X trilogy.

Talk to Me’s plot: “When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.”

Are you a fan of Talk to Me? Where do you think it ranks among other A24 horror movies? Give us your thoughts below!

The actress, who had gotten her first Academy Award nomination for the historical drama, wants to revisit the role and explore a continuation.

In 2011, the summer box office had concluded with a mid-budgeted historical drama starring primarily women dominating the box office for about a month from August to September. The Help was a film adaptation of an international bestseller by Kathryn Stockett from director Tate Taylor, whose credits include the James Brown biopic, Get On Up, and the horror film, Ma. The movie featured an all-star cast, including Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer, and Jessica Chastain.

Deadline reveals that one of the film’s stars, Jessica Chastain, has proposed her idea for a sequel to the film. While appearing on Entertainment Weekly’s Awardist Podcast, Chastain spoke about the film and responded to the notion of a sequel, “You know who I think about all the time, and I just wish I could play her [again]? Celia Foote. I just want to do something, Celia and Minny, and see what happened. You know they ended up living together and raising the baby together, they were best friends. How amazing would that film be? I loved her, and I got to be a bit silly.”

The Help‘s box office success ended with a domestic gross of $169 million and a worldwide take of $216 million on a budget that totaled just over $20 million. The film earned Octavia Spencer an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Minny Jackson, although Chastain herself was also up for the award. Chastain adds, “A lot of my characters I feel like I got to experience a lot. Celia, it was such a deep dive for me. I really threw on that character, and I didn’t really get to mine that much material because I was a supporting part of that story. That’s a character I wish I could revisit.”

The plot for The Help reads,
An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African American maids’ point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.

Chastain’s Oscar nomination for the film was her first. She would be nominated again the following year for her role in Zero Dark Thirty, then she would secure a win for the award of Best Actress for her titular part in The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

Neill Blomkamp’s Gran Turismo is one of the better video game movies precisely because it doesn’t rely on the game at all to tell its story.

PLOT: The true story of Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe), a gifted Gran Turismo player who parlayed his skills into a professional race car driving career.

REVIEW: While some might roll their eyes at the notion of Hollywood making a movie out of Gran Turismo, the famed racing simulator, this is a surprisingly rock-solid effort that’s not much of a video game adaptation at all. Similar to the recent Tetris, this is less of a video game adaptation than a dramatization of a fascinating true story that involved the game. Nissan actually did have a competition where Gran Turismo players were given a chance to train as professional racers. Mardenborough was gifted enough on the track that he went onto a legit career in F1.

It adds up to a pretty interesting underdog story that offers director Neill Blomkamp a change of pace, with this essentially a straightforward sports movie. You don’t have to be a Gran Turismo player to enjoy this, although fans of the game will note that Blomkamp does use aspects of the gameplay to dramatize the racing scenes in a way that compliments the story rather than dominates it.

Indeed, Mardenborough’s story is tailor-made for movies, with him a friendly kid from England who’s being hassled by his dad (Djimon Hounsou) to stop messing around with Gran Turismo and find a decent trade. Lucky for him, a Nissan exec (Orlando Bloom) has a wild idea. He wants to start GT Academy to train Gran Turismo players as race car drivers. What’s crazy is that the concept worked better than anyone could have thought, with the shy, humble Mardenborough having had a promising career behind the wheel (he also doubles for Madekwe during the racing scenes).

While it hits all the requisite underdog movie beats (rivals on the track, grumpy mentors, disapproving parents), it can’t be denied the movie works well, thanks mainly to Blomkamp’s style and the game cast. Madekwe is a real find, giving Mardenborough a lot of vulnerability and making him someone to root for. David Harbour also has a strong role as Jann’s trainer, who thinks the GT Academy idea is nonsense and just wants to ensure no one gets killed, only to become a believer later on. Harbour’s got enough of an edge to him to keep the part from getting too sentimental. In fact, Blomkamp has assembled an interestingly eccentric cast that includes the often under-used Orlando Bloom in a solid character role and former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, who acquits herself nicely as Jann’s mom.

Blomkamp also does a good job walking a fine line between depicting the racing action in a realistic, immersive way while staying true to the style of the gameplay. While this lacks the hardcore tone of Blomkamp’s sci-fi films, it’s a good stab at mainstream studio filming from the director, and he’s done an excellent job making a family crowd-pleaser.

One thing’s sure; Gran Turismo is a movie made for the big screen. In this streaming era, it’s hard to get people out to theatres for a non-franchise film, and basing this one on a video game is a sneaky way of doing a classic sports movie while still having the advantage of known IP. If you’ve never played Gran Turismo, you’ll still likely enjoy this. It’s an excellent way to end the summer, and hopefully, it finds its audience.

8

This episode of the Horror TV Shows We Miss video series was Written and Narrated by Niki Minter, Edited by Adam Walton, Produced by John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

The Chiller Channel was a huge gateway for me. I had been exposed to whatever my mom watched previous to that, or whatever weird shit I found at 2AM… it’s more than you think. Chiller brought me the things I missed out on when they originally aired. One of those is Night Visions.

Night Visions originally aired in 2001, though it was meant to air the year prior, but one of our previous series, Freakylinks took its place. I’m not upset about this– Freakylinks was the series we deserved. Then on July 6th, 2001, brooding punk poet and man of many black tees, Henry Rollins entered our homes through the small screen. He’d probably give me shit for using the word brooding. I do love me some Rollins poetry though. If you are familiar with Uncle Hank, you know he is more intimidating than terrifying. More on that in a moment…

Night Visions was an anthology series created by Dan Angel and Billy Brown. Angel has certainly dabbled in some of the more noteworthy of the genre from John Carpenter’s Body Bags to Goosebumps to The X-Files. Then on the other hand, Brown has just as many credits and many of the same as his partner in crime. Brown has tag teamed on many of R.L. Stine’s TV projects. I get it. If Stine called me up to work on literally anything, I would be there. Horror fangirly dreams aside, Night Visions was pretty stacked for the given budget. They had actors like Timothy Olyphant, Thora Birch, Cary Elwes, Malcolm McDowell, Miguel Ferrer, Natasha Lyonne, Pam Grier, Amanda Plummer, and Aidan Quinn. You have writing and directing talent that includes Jose Rivera, Joe Dante, Tobe Hooper, and Keith Gordon. This sounds amazing so far, right? Right.

I think the series often getting mixed up with the likes of Outer Limits, Twilight Zone (the newer ones), and to some extent, Beyond Belief is a bit of an injustice. Unfortunately it didn’t get the fair chance it originally deserved. There was a bit of overlap as those 3 shows were running around the same time. The showrunners had a clear idea of what they wanted the series to be, and it just quietly slipped through the cracks. First starting with Fox, who thought it was strong, but also wanted to add their flair. Which brings us back to Uncle Hank. It wasn’t originally intended for the series to have an actual host, if anything, it would be something more of a voiceover/narrator. The network actually made it a make or break situation– they either had a host or they had no show. Apparently, Gary Oldman was interested in taking on the role, but the studio pushed ultimately to have Rollins who they had been courting so to speak. Rollins was supposed to have a recurring role on X-Files and instead they got him for this. Rollins liked the idea of being a Rod Sterling, we all do, so I can’t blame him. It irks me slightly that some viewers are critical of having Rollins as a host. I think it’s actually one of the more memorable things about the series.

Fave Episodes:

I’m going to spoil these a little throughout so if you’ve never seen this series, maybe skip then circle back to this part when you’ve done the deed.

A View Through the Window (Ep 3): This episode trips me the hell out, much like that Monsters episode, The Waiting Game. I wanted to start with this one because I think it’s an episode that everyone references when it comes to the tops in anthology horror. From the beginning, you have no idea what’s going on. I spent most of the time with my wheels spinning. I really wanted Bill Pullman to get his happy ending, and I naively thought this was achievable. The tale is based on a short story called Window from Bob Leman. Pullman plays Major Ben Darnell, a Physicist Army Major who is brought to the middle of a desert on a special assignment. When Ben gets there, he finds what appears to be a one-way window with a view to a family on a prairie, having split with his wife losing his child, he begins to romanticizes a life he could still have. The army is trying to break through the window, and he finds that at certain times the barrier breaks… and that’s all you need to know at this point. Pullman himself directed this one and I think he did a rather lovely job in regards to the imagery and how the story is portrayed on screen. I have a feeling that several of you have had nightmares about this one.

The Maze (Ep 11): I pretty much adore everything about this episode, and I think a big reason why has to do with the fact that it parallels my own dreams. Do you ever have that? Even more bizarre that it’s Tobe Hooper’s vision and this is not the first time this has happened with him. The idea that this maze serves as a portal through time is kind of great on several levels. I didn’t think that the episode would go where it did a couple of times, and you’re thrown off immediately. It starts with Amanda Plummer– just envision me pointing at my TV like Rick Dalton. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever been offered a DVD or DVD player in exchange for a date. It’s like a white van candy scenario for cinephiles. Thora Birch is an awesome lead, and definitely a legend amongst the spooky, cynical gals. The episode also utilizes liminal Horror before we coined the phrase. The ending serves as a bittersweet reminder to us all.

Bitter Harvest (Ep 8): Who is one of the all-time creepiest dudes? My number one guy. You likely will not guess on the first, or probably second and third tries– it’s Jack Palance. I mean, Torture Garden, Alone in the Dark, Craze, and this episode. When I was little, I had this irrational fear of old people, and thanks Jack Palance for reminding me. I think that’s kind of the beauty of Palance as an actor. He’s intimidating and his voice makes you feel like crawling under your blankie. In the episode he plays Jake, the neighbor on the farm to Brendan Fletcher’s character, Shane, who keeps trespassing to fish in his pond. One day the old man, Jake catches him and while trying to chase him, Jake slips into a running wood chipper and loses both of his arms. Instead of telling Shane’s parents that he’s the reason behind the accident, he tells them that he was fishing in his pond and in exchange for this wants Shane to help him around the farm. What Shane doesn’t know is that the old man is pushing for a little karma. There’s so many unsettling moments in this and the relationship between Fletcher and Palance only elevates the tension. The ending is f*cked, but the roller coaster of emotions that you’re taken on are a delightful thrill.

Patterns (Ep 13): I feel like I would fail you all if I left this episode off the list. Another reason we’re choosing it has to do with the chemistry between the two actors, similar to why I chose Cutting Cards in our Tales from the Crypt episode. In this case you get Malcolm McDowell and the late and extremely great, Miguel Ferrer. The focal point of the episode revolves around Martin, portrayed by McDowell, who must persuade psychiatrist Dr. Dan Critchley, played by Ferrer, that his tics are the key to preventing the world from ending. Now if I’m being truly honest, Cutting Cards edges this one out because Walter Hill. Writer Phillip Levens does make this one worth the watch, but it feels like it needed more time. Levens wrote and served as story editor on some of my favorite Smallville episodes so he stays in my good graces forever. The final ten minutes of the episode stand out as the most powerful, and McDowell’s closing line leaves you thoroughly satisfied.

The Occupant (Ep 6): This is one I missed on the first go around. I’m kinda glad I did because I think younger me would have been scared to be in the house alone. Well, adult me actually got pretty freaked too. Even though the whole alone in the house thing is not new to Horror, it still plays with you after, if it’s done well. Bridget Fonda, who I dearly miss seeing on-screen, plays Mary, a single woman who believes someone else is living in her home. This is a bit of a different twist on, there’s someone inside the house. No, it’s not some psychotic British guy or some college freshman. I think the story is really good at building tension and revealing the truth slowly. It keeps the surprise twist hidden until the end, which makes it super interesting to watch and keeps you hooked until the big reveal. Can I also add that anytime anyone is hiding in a closet in a Horror movie my blood pressure automatically goes up? You think that after seeing this scenario play out several times that you would have some sort of expectations, but the expectation is that you’re just going to fall for it all over again. God I love this genre.

For this series, having only one season, I must admit that I love all the episodes. Which ones are your favorites?

Where to Watch:

If you seek it out, you will find it. Want something more physical? Naw. You get nothing. Can we go back to our early 2000s roots and just burn it on a DVD-R? I’m somewhat surprised this never got a physical release, and also never went to streaming. Should I blame Fox? I have no problem with this.

How it Ended/Where are we now?:

With Night Visions getting moved from Fox to Sci-Fi mid-season and ending with a weird anthology movie which was just the last few episodes minus a host, we should have known that a second season was not in the cards. I will be forever grateful that it went into syndication on Chiller though. There are episodes I feel like I may have caught on Fox, but I remember watching it in its entirety on Chiller. Fox didn’t know what they had, which is not a surprise from a network that will either pull good shows or run them into the ground. Remember when Fox was a genuinely great network? How long ago was that?

Night Visions didn’t pull any punches. For what they had to work with, they left lasting impressions with the tales they presented each week. The great tragedy of Night Visions was that we had such a strong start and never got another season.

A couple previous episodes of Horror TV Shows We Miss can be seen below. If you’d like to see more, and check out the other shows we have to offer, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!