EMPIRE CREATORS SUED FOR THE THIRD TIME FOR $500 MILLION

The creators of Empire are being sued by a production company owner who insists he came up with the idea for the hit show - the third lawsuit to make such claims.

Jon Astor-White is suing the show's creators Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, along with Imagine Entertainment and 21st Century Fox. He wants $500million, plus additional damages.

Speaking to MailOnline Astor-White explained: 'In our minds it (Empire) is at least 75per cent of what we wrote.'

Astor-White, who owns a Vegas based production company, claims in suit that a show he proposed back in 2007 - named King Solomon - had a huge number of similarities to Empire.

His treatment focused on a record producer and his family and their battle for control of the company, with Astor-White imagining that Kanye West, Richard Roundtree, Alicia Keyes, John Goodman, George Hamilton and Angie Dickinson would all want to be involved.

He states in his lawsuit that his show would have had 'the style and elegance of Dynasty meets The Sopranos with a sprinkling of The Godfather.'

Astor-White claims he faxed his ideas to a number of production companies, and the theft of these ideas led to the creation of Empire.

Back in 2000 Astor-White sued the Tropicana hotel-casino, five officers, an entertainment law attorney and the NAACP claiming he came up with the idea for the Las Vegas entertainers Hall of Fame.