Sony denies Timeless allegations

Timeless’s first season will run to 16 episodes

US studio Sony Pictures Television has denied accusations that it ripped off a Spanish drama to make NBC time-travel series Timeless.

Spanish producer Onza Partners is suing Sony for copyright infringement and breach of implied contract for its drama El Ministerio del Tiempo (The Department of Time).

Onza claims it met with a partner from the Gersh Agency last year about making a US Department of Time series. After the discussions, Onza alleges, Sony agreed to produce the show and took an 18-month option, before announcing it had picked up a separate project – then called Time – from creators Shawn Ryan and Eric Kripke.

Onza says it began negotiating with Sony for a US version on the condition that there was a promise not to make use of the ideas underlying the format without a full and formally executed agreement.

The Spanish prodco now says both shows “centre on a national government’s secret efforts to utilise time travel to thwart undesired changes to past events.”

However, Sony, NBCUniversal and other defendants yesterday said that time travel is a “well-established genre” and added that the two shows don’t “embody anything more than generic similarities between two works in the time-travel genre.”

Lawyers for Sony, NBCU, Ryan and Kripke have asked for a January 23 hearing before a judge.

NBC’s Timeless, which has sold to numerous territories, premiered on October 3 to decent ratings in the States. This month, the network gave the Sony TV and Universal TV show an order for three more episodes – taking its total order to 16 episodes.

It’s the latest high-profile format theft allegation to surface in recent months, following a dispute between Banijay and FremantleMedia over an Israeli shiny-floor gameshow.