Ryan, Kripke,
Sony Pictures Entertainment and
NBCUniversal were sued by Onza Entertainment for
breach of contract and
copyright infringement, claiming that the concept for
Timeless was based on the Spanish series ''
(The Ministry of Time''), which follows the adventures of a three-person team made up of two men and a woman who travel to the past with a view to preserving past events. In April 2015, Javier Olivares, one of the creators of
El Ministerio del Tiempo, met with representatives of
Gersh in the
MIPTV audiovisual fair of
Cannes. There, they discussed the possibility of developing an American version of the show. Gersh would later ask for a DVD copy of the first episode of the Spanish show, with English subtitles. Onza Partners, the Spanish
production company, gave that
DVD to the Gersh Agency in the hopes of working with them. Roy Ashton, from the Gersh Agency, wrote to Onza letting them know that they liked
El Ministerio del Tiempo and wanted to work with them. Ashton also mentioned
Eric Kripke and
Ben Edlund as possible
show runners. In August 2015,
Deadline reported that
NBC had bought a project called
Time, created by Kripke and
Shawn Ryan. At the same time, all negotiations regarding the American version of
El Ministerio del Tiempo were dropped. That project went on to become
Timeless, with its pilot episode airing in January 2016. The defendants responded to the suit in a November 23, 2016 filing, contending that shows about time travel are an established television genre, and that similarities between the two shows are generic, and largely based on the notion that the main characters will travel in time to effect some kind of change. A request to dismiss Onza's lawsuit by Sony was denied on February 15, 2017, but the two parties ultimately came to an agreement and jointly moved to dismiss. == Release ==