It was only yesterday while the phones were still ringing with congratulatory messages for the ace actress Priyanka Chopra of the television show Quantico on the grand opening and early success both in India and abroad. The same was the case on social media as well which was abuzz with positive reviews of the show. But in all that there was one call that the makers of the show would have had liked to not arrive; a legal issue.
Apparently the producer of the show Mark Gordon has received a legal notice by filmmakers Jamie Hellman and Barbara Leibovitz claiming that Mark has stolen their idea to make the TV show Quantico starring India ace actress Priyanka Chopra in the lead role. They claim that the show is made by ripping off their own idea of a documentary that they had made.
Both the filmmakers Barbara and Jamie have together prepared a documentary named “Quantico: The Making Of An FBI Agent” which followed a class of recruits through their 16 week program at Quantico where they trained and became agents. The documentary made in 1999 post production was presented to Gordon in 2001 by business executives Paula Paizes where Leibovitz and Hellman inked a deal with Gordon for making a movie out of the documentary.
According to the deal signed, the duo handed over their entire material of the documentary inclusive of notes, information and transcripts and was given assurance that Mark Gordon would get back to them about it which never happened.
In the lawsuit filed by Leibovitz and Hellman, it says that the original plan according to their deal was to make a movie which would show a conspiracy hatched inside the FBI Academy that would raise questions over whom to trust. Sounds really familiar, doesn’t it?
The lawsuit is about the breach of contract between the two parties. Fiduciary duty and “Based On” credit for the documentary are also included, along with actual and punitive damages.
rounak