Mark Wahlberg and HBO’s Ballers just got hit with a copyright lawsuit
He and the network were sued in federal court last Thursday.
Not-so-great news from out in Wahlberg land. Deadline reports that Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson’s HBO show Ballers is facing a copyright lawsuit for allegedly lifting the concept of the show from another project called Off Season.
Ballers is a fictional show that follows NFL players and their extravagant lives, a similar idea to Wahlberg and HBO’s super successful show Entourage, which ended in 2011. According to the complaint posted on Deadline, “stories, character traits, scenes, and incidents portrayed in the two works, Ballers and Off Season, are, in many respects, virtually identical and strikingly similar.’’
Off Season writers Everette Silas and Sherri Littleton sued HBO, executive producers Wahlberg and Johnson, and creator and fellow EP Stephen Levinson in federal court last Thursday.
Silas and Littleton claim Wahlberg, Johnson, and Levinson were given materials about the idea Off Season by producers “possibly’’ attached to the project. The deal to create the show, according to Silas and Littleton, fell through in January 2009, when the two were asked to take their names off the “created by’’ credits and refused.
Meanwhile, an HBO spokesperson told Deadline, “We are confident the case has no merit.’’
Mark Wahlberg movies ranked by Rotten Tomato:
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