{"id":16738,"date":"2016-04-18T14:01:26","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T19:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=16738"},"modified":"2016-04-18T14:01:26","modified_gmt":"2016-04-18T19:01:26","slug":"report-ballers-lawsuit-naming-rock-defendant-dropped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/04\/18\/report-ballers-lawsuit-naming-rock-defendant-dropped\/","title":{"rendered":"Report &#8211; HBO responds to &#8220;Ballers&#8221; lawsuit naming The Rock as defendant"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3137091195\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>HBO filed a motion last week seeking to dismiss a lawsuit claiming the &#8220;Ballers&#8221; series starring &#8220;The Rock&#8221; Dwayne Johnson was lifted from two writers&#8217;s proposed idea, reports <a href=\"http:\/\/deadline.com\/2016\/04\/ballers-hbo-lawsuit-dismissal-mark-wahlberg-dwayne-johnson-copyright-1201739502\/\" target=\"_blank\">Deadline<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Rock was named as a defendant in the suit along with co-star Mark Wahlberg and HBO. In HBO&#8217;s legal response last week, the cabler petitioned a Los Angeles court to &#8220;do nothing more than review the works themselves to conclude that Plaintiffs\u2019s complaint should be dismissed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Writers Everette Silas and Sherri Littleton claimed their pitch for a sports-themed show called &#8220;Off-Season&#8221; is similar to &#8220;Ballers&#8221; and follows the creative outline they presented to TV executives several years ago.<\/p>\n<p>HBO claimed the opposite in their filing, saying &#8220;the works bear absolutely no<em>\u00a0<\/em>similarity in their expression \u2013 i.e., in plot, theme, dialogue, mood, setting, pace, characters, and sequence of events.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In the lawsuit, the writers claimed\u00a0the &#8220;stories, character traits, scenes, and incidents portrayed in the two works, <em>Ballers<\/em> and <em>Off Season<\/em>, are, in many respects, virtually identical and strikingly similar.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>HBO&#8217;s legal team is seeking a hearing in July to review their petition for the suit to\u00a0be tossed. Season 2 of &#8220;Ballers&#8221; is also expected to premiere in July, making it seem like HBO wants the show to be free and clear of legal issues to not distract from promoting the next season.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-508162471\"><div id=\"pwtor-4138322062\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>HBO filed a motion last week seeking to dismiss a lawsuit claiming the &#8220;Ballers&#8221; series starring &#8220;The Rock&#8221; Dwayne Johnson was lifted from two writers&#8217;s proposed idea, reports Deadline. Rock was named as a defendant <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/04\/18\/report-ballers-lawsuit-naming-rock-defendant-dropped\/\" title=\"Report &#8211; HBO responds to &#8220;Ballers&#8221; lawsuit naming The Rock as defendant\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1370,340,294],"class_list":["post-16738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news_etc","tag-ballers","tag-hbo","tag-the-rock"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2016\/01\/RockTheTB_3x2_600.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16738"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16742,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16738\/revisions\/16742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}