[ad_1]
UPDATE, 7:22 PM: Showtime filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit against her, Billions creator Andrew Ross Sorkin and others by a Wall Street performance coach who claims to be the inspiration of a key character in the drama series. Read the document here.
Denise Shull, who wrote the 2012 fiction book Market Mind Games, filed a copyright infringement claim in January, claiming that the defendants "robbed" Dr. Wendy Rhoades, played by Maggie Siff. In its filing Friday in the Southern District of New York, the premium cable operator claims a "total lack of similarity protextée expression" between the book of Shull and Billions and therefore argued that the trial should be dismissed.
Read the case details below.
BEFORE January 7: Wall Street performance coach specializing in market psychology pursues creators of Billions, saying that she was uncredited and unpaid inspiration for Dr. Wendy Rhoades' character.
Denise Shull sued for copyright infringement in federal court in New York, claiming that New York Times financial columnist and CNBC Squawk Box Co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin "stole" his character without paying for it or getting permission.
The lawsuit (read here) also quotes the two other executive producers in the series, Brian Koppelman and David Levien, Showtime CEO David Nevins, and the pay television network's parent company, CBS. Sorkin sent questions back to Showtime.
After initially refusing any comment, Showtime said today: "Ms. Shull has gone through many law firms and theories of her alleged case, part of her repeated failed attempts to force us to hire her as a lawyer. as consultant in our program. We are confident that his trial will fail in the same way. "
Shull said that she had attracted Sorkin's attention after publishing Market Mind Games: a radical psychology of investment, trading and risk. The 2012 book features a fictional account of his work, helping hedge fund portfolio managers to recognize the influence of their emotions on trading decisions. In Market Mind Games, Shull adopts the character of an internal performance coach, much like the character of Rhoades in Billions.
Sorkin invited Shull to appear on Squawk Box August 9, 2012, to talk about Market Mind Games. More than a year after her appearance on CNBC's morning show, Shull was interviewed for an article about coaches and psychiatrists who help fund managers make more informed decisions. This article was published in a special section of the New York Times DealBook, an online financial report created by Sorkin.
The journalist, including the book on the financial crisis of 2008 Too big to fail adapted as an HBO movie, was working on a television pilot for Billions. The story is vaguely inspired by former Manhattan American lawyer Preet Bharara and his legal battles with billionaire hedge fund Steve Cohen of S.A.C. Capital Advisors.
On March 13, 2014, Showtime commissioned a pilot for the drama Billions of Sorkin and the duo of writers composed of Koppelman and Levien (Ocean & # 39; s Thirteen).
Sorkin sent an email to Shull in the summer of 2015 asking her to help develop the main female character, which he describes as a hedge fund performance coach who helps traders to manage their emotional baggage, according to the lawsuit.
On August 27, 2015, Sorkin introduced Shull – which he described as "one of the best coaches of hedge fund performance in the country" – to actress Maggie Siff, who had been chosen to play the role of Wendy Rhoades. Siff, in turn, connected Shull to Koppelman, who invited the coach into the writers' room.
Shull said she had met Koppelman and Levien for about half an hour, explaining how his approach differed from that of Tony Robbins, reputed life coach, according to the lawsuit. Siff joined the conversation and the group spent an hour discussing the psychology of investing, according to the lawsuit.
The actress said that she was reading Market Mind Games, and that it would be "integral" to develop the character of Rhoades.
A few days after this meeting, a Showtime executive contacted Shull to discuss his role in promoting Billions, created in January 2016. Shull thought that the initial meeting was the beginning of a relationship and that the terms would be negotiated later. It never happened.
"After the first episode, people in New York who knew me said," Oh, my God, it's you, "Shull said in an interview. The New York Observer called, asking to write a profile of the "real life Wendy".
Showtime's lawyers sent a letter to Shull in March 2017 asking her to stop portraying herself as a source of inspiration for the character or to describe herself as a consultant for the show. This prompted Shull to hire a lawyer.
"They had several opportunities to do the right thing. Instead, they tried to pretend that I did not exist and that my book did not exist, "said Shull. "I think they thought I would not or could not stand up to CBS or Andrew Ross Sorkin."
In addition to the copyright infringement complaint, the lawsuit filed by Shull and his company, The ReThink Group, alleges a copyright infringement for retribution for profiting from a work. derivative, a violation of New York civil rights law for using his character without his consent, deceptive trading practices, and unjust enrichment.
"Billions is an extremely successful television series that is entering its fourth season with revenues in excess of an amount to be determined at trial," says Shull in his lawsuit. "In these circumstances, fairness and conscience must require the accused to compensate the beneficiaries for the benefits conferred by the plaintiffs."
[ad_2]
Source link