HBO’s ‘Ballers’: Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Mark Wahlberg sued for copyright infringement

“Ballers” Season 2 is on its way but not without hiccups. The bosses of the television series, Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson, have recently been hit with a copyright lawsuit.

Writers Everette Silas and Sherri Littleton filed the petition against Johnson and Wahlberg on federal court, seeking unspecified punitive, compensatory and special damages, Deadline reports. The petitioners are claiming that Johnson and Wahlberg stole the idea of a sport-industry based television series from them.

“The stories, character traits, scenes and incidents portrayed in the two works, Ballers and Off Season , are, in many respects, virtually identical and strikingly similar. These substantially similar elements, coupled with the Defendants’ direct access to the Materials, leaves little doubt that numerous elements of Ballers were copied from Off Season,” the petitioners wrote.

Silas and Littleton allege that they had been working to develop the “Off Season” project since 2009. According to them, the deal fell apart when they insisted for their names to be featured at the end credits as creators of the series. Both further accuse the “Ballers” duo of lifting the name of the series from a title of one of their episodes.

Wahlberg and Johnson's representatives have denied the allegations and said that Silas and Littleton never had a meeting with Wahlberg and Johnson.

“We are confident the case has no merit,” an HBO spokesperson said.

However, the petitioners said that they pitched the idea to Richard Brustein, Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray in 2009. Apparently, Brustein, Ciardi and Gray had produced films that starred Johnson and Wahlberg. The writers believe that their materials were passed on to Wahlberg and Johnson.

“Ballers” is a television series created by Stephen Levinson. The story follows Johnson as Spencer Strasmore, a retired NFL player turned financial manager. Wahlberg and Johnson serve as executive producers of the sports comedy show, which premiered in June.

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