10 Huge TV Shows That Have Been Sued For Being Complete Rip-Offs
4. Ray Donovan
As fans of Showtime’s crime drama Ray Donovan celebrate the news that the show has been renewed for a fourth season, one writer is pushing hard for it to cease production entirely. Brian A. Larsen claims that the network stole his idea for The Swissman, which he supposedly pitched to them once in the fall of 2010, and then again in 2011.
According to the suit, Larsen’s lead character bears numerous similarities to Liev Schreiber’s Ray Donovan. The Swissman was set to follow a Hollywood-based fixer (someone who disposes of people for money) who kills his targets in an often violent manner, has troubled relationships with both his father and a catholic priest, and looks out for a brother who cannot keep himself out of trouble.
It all sounds terribly familiar, doesn’t it? Larsen purports to have come up with the concept for the show in 2005 and worked on it between then and 2009, when he registered it with the Writers Guild of America. He then began setting up meetings with various distributors and executives, one of whom was Showtime’s Danielle Gelber.
After being led to believe that early reactions were positive, Larsen was then told that the network was not interested in pursuing his show, and when Ray Donovan aired he was quick to sue for implied breach of confidence.