Timothy Hutton Sues ‘Leverage’ Producers Over Being Left Out Of Reboot

deadline.com:

Timothy Hutton has sued Leverage producer Electric Entertainment for breach of contract, claiming he was unfairly omitted from participating in the reboot of the drama series after he was accused of a 1983 sexual assault in Canada, a claim that was eventually dismissed by prosecutors.The lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court claims Hutton and Electric had closed a deal in February 2020 in which Hutton would star, executive produce and direct at least one episode of the reboot, Leverage: Redemption, on Amazon’s IMDb TV, after the original ran on TNT for five seasons from 2008-2012.

The contract, the suit says, included a “pay-or-play” provision upon close of the deal, “guaranteeing Hutton’s compensation for the Reboot regardless of whether Electric actually utilized his services in the production of the series.”In March of that year, BuzzFeed reported that a woman had filed a criminal complaint against Hutton in Vancouver, BC, alleging an assault that occurred 38 years ago when Hutton was in Canada shooting a film — a move Hutton has said was part of a long-standing extortion attempt that he had talked about with the FBI.Hutton’s lawsuit (read it here) claims producers dropped him when the news of the criminal complain came out.“…Electric did not wait for this investigation to play out, nor did Electric conduct its own investigation,” says the lawsuit. “In fact, although Hutton provided Electric with myriad declarations and other evidence, it did not even contact any of the individuals who were alleged to have knowledge of the false claim.“Instead,” it continued, “…Electric used the BuzzFeed article to remove Hutton from the Reboot.