‘Friday the 13th’ is currently caught in a new legal battle that seeks to determine the real rights holder for the franchise. This new development may put future planned releases at stake.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, screenwriter Victor Miller is looking to reclaim the rights for the classic horror-slasher film ‘Friday the 13th’. Miller wrote the screenplay for the 1980 film directed by Sean S. Cunningham and is credited with creating characters for the multitude of reboots and sequels that stemmed from the original classic.
Earlier this year, Miller began sending out termination notices as he sought to reclaim the rights for the film. A new lawsuit was filed in a Connecticut federal court on August 24.
The lawsuit will seek to determine the legal holder of the rights as well as who can license future films in the franchise. The case is between Miller and Horror, Inc. and the Manny Company, who claimed that Miller was hired only as a “work-made-for-hire” by producer/director Sean Cunningham. This meant that rights still belonged to Manny Company as it is Miller’s actual employer.
In addition, this meant that Miller wasn’t eligible to take advantage of a copyright law provision that allows authors to terminate a grant of rights and reclaim ownership.
According to The Wrap, the complaint against Miller alleged that he agreed to write the script for ‘Friday the 13th’ under an employment agreement where he would relinquish all rights to Manny Company. He reportedly received residual payments over the last 36 years.
The complaint read, “Since the initial release of the Film in 1980, Horror has invested substantial time, money and effort developing and growing this singular independent horror film into one of the most successful and iconic film franchises of all time… Miller’s attempt to re-characterize his initial work for hire efforts as an independent project 36 years after the fact is nothing more than a transparently disingenuous money grab.”
According to an article on 1428 Elm, this may strain further developments for the franchise – specifically the upcoming ‘Friday the 13th’ film scheduled to be released on January 2017. Breck Eisner of ‘The Last Witch Hunter’ was reportedly in talks to helm the new film that seeks to feature Jason Voorhees’ entire family.
‘Friday the 13th’ is a planned horror-slasher film scheduled to be released in the United States on January 13, 2017. It is intended as a remake of the original franchise from the 1980s featuring the iconic villain Jason Voorhees.
