EXCLUSIVE: Sky and the chief producer of Britannia have been slapped with a £6.5M ($8.5M) lawsuit within the UK by a author who claims the fantasy Roman Empire sequence was stolen.
Britannia ran for 3 seasons on Sky earlier than Deadline revealed its cancelation in 2023. Starring The Strolling Lifeless actor David Morrissey as a navy chief who spearheads the Roman invasion of Britannia, the drama aired on Amazon Prime Video and later Epix within the U.S.
Benjamin Crushcov, a author and trainer, has alleged in a Excessive Courtroom lawsuit that Sky and different defendants misappropriated his thought and unique script for Britannia, after which conspired to cover-up the drama’s true origins.
James Richardson, co-founder of Britannia producer Vertigo Films, is called as a defendant. The third defendant is Karen Hyland, a journalist who Crushcov accuses of taking a duplicate of his work and handing it to Richardson.
In a joint assertion, Sky, Vertigo, and Hyland mentioned there was “no foundation” to the claims. In correspondence with Crushcov, Sky and Vertigo added that they had been unaware of his script till he complained.
In his particulars of declare, Crushcov mentioned he created a closely fictionalized historic drama, titled Tribus, as a part of his research at Bathtub Spa College in 2014. He mentioned his work has “quite a few putting similarities” to Britannia, which was greenlit by Sky in 2016.
Crushcov alleged that Hyland, a former tv author at Information UK, stole a duplicate of his script in 2016 and it was handed to Richardson. Crushcov didn’t proof how his work switched arms, however alleged that Hyland and Richardson had been acquainted. Hyland denied to Crushcov that she contacted Vertigo.
Crushcov claimed Hyland had been keen about serving to him pitch the present and on “a number of events” talked about sharing the thought with Richardson. Crushcov disclosed messages from Hyland by which she mentioned 2016 could be the “12 months of Tribus” and that the sequence would “find yourself on Sky Atlantic.”
Robin Mukherjee, an EastEnders screenwriter who mentored Crushcov at college, discovered that similarities between Tribus and Britannia had been “too many and too precise” to be dismissed as coincidence, based on the court docket doc. A schedule of similarities highlights likenesses between character names and plot traces within the two tasks.
Crushcov confronted Richardson along with his issues in March 2019. Vertigo’s then head of authorized affairs replied: “We don’t consider that anyone concerned within the improvement and manufacturing of Britannia was conscious of the tv sequence you had been growing (previous to James receiving your letter in February 2019); it had not been raised by any third events nor had your script been given to any of the creators or writers.”
In January 2020, Crushcov despatched Sky a stop and desist discover about Britannia, prompting an investigation by the Comcast-owned broadcaster.
Sky responded to Crushcov a month later and mentioned the drafting of Britannia’s ultimate remedy was concluded in November 2013 by co-creator Terry Cafolla. Sky added {that a} ultimate draft of episode one was submitted in April 2016 when Jez and Tom Butterworth had been hooked up to the mission to additional develop it for the display. The broadcaster added that Richardson “has by no means had sight of your script” and “has by no means met” Hyland.
Crushcov alleged that Sky made “fraudulent misrepresentations” in its response. He mentioned Cafolla is just not credited as a author on the primary episode of Britannia, and pointed to a 2020 interview with Jez Butterworth by which the author talks about ranging from scratch on the present as a result of it “was at an deadlock.” It’s throughout this era Crushcov argues that his work was misappropriated.
Crushcov is searching for £6.5M in damages and compensation, together with author and creator charges and misplaced earnings. He’s additionally searching for a public apology.
Sky, Vertigo, and Hyland mentioned: “We’re conscious of a authorized declare that has been made referring to Sky TV drama sequence Britannia. All events concerned contemplate there to be no foundation to this declare and are within the strategy of responding accordingly.”
