Leverage

Morethanabitfoolish

Morethanabitfoolish

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Mar 14, 2021
Recently found this show got a sequel series and may also have a bit of real world drama in the background so posting a thread in case things get amusing. Leverage was a crime series on TNT back in 2008-12. The basic premise was the show was about a group of criminals with their personal specialities who worked as team targeting the more villainous sorts out there who tended to have victims who could not go to the police since they were usually being targetted in mostly legal though morally bankrupt manners. Corrupt politicians, bent businessmen, journalists with no standards, the usual fun sorts. It was far from intellectual stuff but watchable and had a decent commentary run for each episode which suggested that the writers behind it were faintly depressed that most people watching would assume this would be largely fictional evil as opposed to stuff happening all the time.

In 2021 it received a sequel by the name of Leverage: Redemption on IMDB TV I found about about and will be giving a watch since I am curious to see what a difference a decade makes. The sequel has Christian Kane, Beth Riesgraf and Christian Kane reprising their roles as full time cast. Aldis Hodge is not though his presence as a guest star and the fact that he's playing Hawkman in the upcoming Black Adam film suggests that is more due to having other responsibilities rather than disinterest in it.

Timothy Hutton however is not returning and the reason I decided this might actually merit a thread. He faced an accusation of rape that the Canadian police investigated and closed down the with no charges filed (I've linked an article here, there's quite a few out there);


Canadian prosecutors will not bring criminal charges against Hollywood actor Timothy Hutton after a Canadian ex-model and former child actor alleged he raped her in 1983 when she was 14 years old, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

“Timothy Hutton has officially been cleared by law enforcement of a criminal complaint filed against him. The Canadian authorities scrutinized the matter and found a glaring lack of support and proof of Ms. Johnston’s claim,” Joshua Rosenberg, Hutton’s U.S. lawyer with Kinsella Weitzman, told THR in a statement.

Hutton’s legal counsel was informed of the lead prosecutor’s decision on July 7 and told that the case was now considered closed. Representatives from the British Columbia Prosecution Service were not available for direct comment.

Sera Johnston filed a criminal complaint with the Vancouver police in late 2019 about the alleged incident that took place while Hutton was shooting the 1984 film Iceman, directed by Fred Schepisi, in Vancouver. Johnston claimed she met the actor while with three friends, and that they were invited back to Hutton’s Vancouver hotel, where they were served drinks. Then, Johnston claimed, Hutton raped her while a friend watched.

Two years ago, Hutton’s lawyers told BuzzFeed News, which first reported the allegations, that the actor “completely and unequivocally denies” the story, that he never met Johnston, and that he was the subject of an extortion attempt.

The age of consent in Canada is 16 years old now, but was 14 in 1983. There is no statute of limitations for sexual assault, misconduct or battery claims in Canada.
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Now kind of unsurprisingly no studio was going to take him on with that accusation on his head. However Hutton has also understandably sued them for break of contract.


Timothy Hutton is suing the producers of the IMDb TV series Leverage: Redemption. According to Variety, the Oscar-winning actor alleges that his contract was breached when he was dropped from the show after a sexual assault allegation was levied against him in a report.

In the report published in March 2020, Buzzfeed News wrote that a woman came forward to the Vancouver Police Department, alleging Hutton raped her in 1983 when she was 14. The woman, Sera Johnston, said she and her friends were invited back to Hutton’s hotel, where the actor allegedly assaulted her. Hutton denied the allegations, saying they were “patently false and designed only to extort money from him.” British Columbia prosecutors did not press charges against the actor.

When Buzzfeed News piece was released, Leverage: Redemption had been picked up as a revival of the five-season TNT show Leverage, and Hutton was preparing to reprise his role as Nathan Ford. After the allegations came to light, however, the production company, Electric Entertainment, cut him from the rebooted series. Ultimately, Hutton was replaced by Noah Wyle.

Hutton alleges that Electric Entertainment failed to investigate the sexual assault allegation and ignored evidence that Hutton’s representatives showed which challenged the claim, per Variety. The suit also alleges that Electric Entertainment violated Hutton’s pay-or-play provision in his contract and that the production company owes him about $3 million.

An oral agreement had been made with Hutton’s representatives where he would have been paid $175,000 per episode, with the addition of directing at least one episode per season, according to the suit. The contract reportedly lacks “morals clause.”

In a statement, Electric Entertainment said that though it hasn’t been serve just yet, Hutton’s suit is “without merit.”

“We take allegations of sexual assault very seriously, especially when children are involved. Despite dealing with these allegations for years, Mr. Hutton failed to disclose them to us before or during negotiations for him to reprise his role in Leverage: Redemption,” the company told Deadline. “Consequently, once we learned of the allegations in the press, we ceased negotiations with him and chose to move on without him. His baseless allegations against us are without merit and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves.”

Update, 3/1: In a statement to The A.V. Club, Dale Kinsella from Hutton’s legal team wrote, “This was a flagrant and pretextual breach of an agreement that had been done for weeks before Electric Entertainment decided there was no deal. Worse, Electric made this decision without any investigation whatsoever. While nobody relishes the prospect of litigation, this course of action is a last resort to hold Electric Entertainment to its obligations. We look forward to presenting our claims to a jury and are confident it will reject Electric’s purported reliance on unsubstantiated and frivolous charges.”
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So alongside the show there'll also be that to follow, however I anticipate it will be a simple settlement.

Also apparently there was South Korean version of the show. No clue if anyone has seen it but if so I'm curious about how it was.
 
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Internet War Criminal said:
The sequel was absolute shit and I think I dropped it 5 minutes into the second episode

it was also just sad just how badly most of them aged
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It's honestly what I am anticipating. I'm curious to see how bad it's going to get but the oh so edgy title combined with it being a remake in 2021 made me think it's probably going to be fairly bad. Mostly I am curious if the lawsuit is going to be quiet settlement or humiliating legal slap fight for maximum amusement.

I made it through the third episode. So far the peak current year has been "the return of actual Nazis" as a quoted line from some whiney American who looks to be a new recurring cast member trying to explain what a harsh life they have lived. Truly, they have known pain.

They've not aged awfully for a decade on but they're trying to do the exact same roles with the exact same quips and quirks and it makes the aging much more noticeable. Not quite "how do you do my fellow teenagers" but it is grating.
 
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