Rake producers settle claim with Sydney barrister

Essential Media has settled a claim by Sydney barrister Charles Waterstreet that ABC series Rake was inspired by him.

Waterstreet argued he was entitled to profits after an initial consultation during the development of the series.

But producers had argued the character of Cleaver Greene was the creation of Peter Duncan, Andrew Knight and Richard Roxburgh.

Roxburgh previously noted, “Really (Waterstreet’s) act of creation was to give us one story for the first series… it was a good story but it was not a case he tried and in fact none of the cases are cases he tried.”

But the matter has now been settled between both parties for an undisclosed sum.

Producer Ian Collie told The Australian, “Charlie no doubt had his grievances and you want to settle it because it was doing nobody any good.

“The dispute takes up a lot of time energy and emotion, so we’ve come to an arrangement and we’re all happy to move on.

“You don’t want the success of the show tarnished by something like this.”

The US adaptation with Greg Kinnear and director Sam Raimi is currently shooting in the US, so the value of any settlement could suddenly be worth a lot more if a series is picked up by FOX.