If you create a production based on real-life incidents that happen to real people, you confront three areas of the law. Any one of them--or all three--could apply to the script: (1) defamation, (2) right of privacy, (3) right of publicity. If you produce a new or original work that has not taken care of these issues, you are liable for lawsuit. A Real Person Release--signed by the real-life individual-- is the best defense against claims that you infringed on the publicity or privacy rights of your real-life subject.