![]() With the legal system effectively ruling in favour of the little guy now against the bigger company, that’s going to cause no shortage of headaches at certain movie studios. It looks as if Sean Cunningham and the Manny company have run out of road in terms of their legal defence in the US at least. Thanks to Brendan Connelly for his help in unpickling all of this. If that deal can’t be brokered, then the next movie is dead before it can begin. Instead, for it to go ahead, a deal has to be hatched between New Line and Miller, to unite – at least temporarily – their collected claims to the character and franchise. This was clearly a part of the process that needed to be worked through, but it hardly brings a new Friday The 13 th film to the top of the queue. Just to add a bit of flavour too, Paramount’s rights have gone back to New Line, which in turn is owned by Warner Bros. The same attorney, Marc Toberoff, is involved in the case against Disney for rights to Marvel characters.įurthermore, any additions to the Friday The 13 th franchise that came in later movies – specifically the character of the grown up Jason Voorhees (Voorhees isn’t a character as such in the original) are not covered by this ruling. International copyright law differs, and so on paper, what he has are the keys to make a new Friday The 13 thfilm, but one that can only be released in the States. Whilst Miller has rights, they only apply in the US. This in turn has ramifications for any sequels and derivatives to be made from this point onwards. On the basis of this, away from the Hollywood sign.įor now, the court of appeal has upheld the original verdict, and Victor Miller has the rights to the original Friday The 13 th script. Whilst it’d be wrong to call Friday The 13th a flat out test case, it’s nonetheless seen as an indicator of which way the wind is blowing. In the meantime, stories of termination notices surrounded the likes of RoboCop and The Terminator have bubbled up, more recently with Marvel properties such as Iron Man and Doctor Strange in the mix. Thus, it all went to appeal, a process that’s taken three years to come to verdict. He vowed to continue fighting, and duly did. A US District Court judge ruled that Miller’s work wasn’t under ‘work for hire’ rules, even though Cunningham argued he was an employee, and not a contractor. Still, in 2018, as this Hollywood Reporter piece details, Miller was successful. He did so under the terms of the US Copyright Act, and the action was unsurprisingly contested. The particular bone of contention between the pair came when Miller served a termination notice seeking to get the rights to the film in 2016. Was Miller employed to do write it, or was it a freelance assignment? Glad you asked. Cunningham was the producer of the first Friday The 13 th too, and in the simplest version of the story, ordered a screenplay from Miller. Which is where a battle between Sean S Cunningham and Victor Miller comes into play. As such, virtually all of them are being fought. These notices – if they all went through – would see studios losing some of their most lucrative franchises, and the rights instead heading back to their creators. And it boils down to creatives exercising rights under American copyright law.Īs this article over at Whynow outlines, Hollywood is currently facing several notice of termination notices from creators of original movie franchise properties. The plan was for more releases, and fast.Īnd in theory, there should have been at least one more film by now – well, until legal problems hit. Rumours of more films spring up quickly, and work got underway. Paramount Pictures certainly hoped for more anyway, trading off a chunk of Christopher Nolan’s 2014 hit Interstellar to get rights to make more films. Nonetheless, their were plans for more films. However, the franchise came to an end – for the time being – with a 2009 reboot, that wasn’t particularly well received. ![]() More than that, the film was a huge hit and, of course, a sizeable boxset of sequels followed. ![]() Try three issues of Film Stories magazine – for just £4.99: right here! ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |