Everett Silas and Sherri Littleton filed a lawsuit on Thursday against Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Mark Wahlberg. The reason for the lawsuit is because they allege that they had the idea for the HBO series “Ballers” back in 2007, and they were close to making a deal with Wahlberg and Johnson in 2009, but the deal fell through. The original name for the show was called “Off Season” and there are several things about their idea that came to life in the “Ballers” HBO show.
According to court documents, the reason that the deal was not made in 2009 is because “Plaintiffs refused to sign the Agreement because it came with a verbal condition that required Plaintiffs to remove their names from the “Created By” credits, which Plaintiffs were not willing to do.”
Silas and Littleton are seeking unspecified charges and among the claims in their lawsuit are: “Off Season” and “Ballers” are both set in Miami and both shows are about the lives of football players on and off the field.
The suit alleges, “Plaintiffs are informed and believe and on that basis allege, that the more recent work, Ballers, borrows heavily from the Materials and that certain aesthetic elements, including, without limitation, physical appearance of the characters and their vehicles, and plots, scenes, as well as story lines, are virtually identical to the Materials that the Defendants had access to.”
