Orphan Black lawsuit alleges cloning of concept

A $US5m lawsuit has been filed by a screenwriter which suggests Orphan Black is a clone of a screenplay he sent to Temple Street Productions in the late 1990s.

The Canadian based drama, which returns to SBS 2 tonight, is at the centre of the legal wrangle instigated by writer Stephen Hendricks claiming copyright infringement by BBC America, Temple Street Productions, series producer David Fortier, and series creators Graeme Manson and John Fawcett.

Hendricks claims he sent his screenplay Double Double — registered with the WGA and the Copyright Office — to Temple Street in 2004. The screenplay was sent to co-president Fortier but a few weeks later he was told they were passing on the project.

Hendricks lists parallels between his screenplay and Orphan Black, including: “the protagonist discovers that she is an ‘orphan clone’;” “the protagonist is jolted by a death…and the subsequent discovery of cloning and being a clone;” and “the protagonist is being watched by her corporate creators, and is soon on the run from them.”

The lawsuit argues: “The similarities between the Series and the Screenplay are so substantial that it is a virtual statistical impossibility that the former could have been created independently from the latter.”

Orphan Black is credited as the creation of Graeme Manson and John Fawcett.

Source: Entertainment Weekly