Maverick’ Copyright Lawsuit Over Screenplay
Paramount will not have to face a lawsuit from the cousin of a writer for Top Gun: Maverick, who alleged he co-wrote the screenplay.
U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff found on Friday that the studio could not have infringed on Gray’s copyright because the scenes he wrote are “themselves infringing derivative works that cannot be copyrighted.” The court stressed that the original film is fully owned by Paramount, meaning the writer has no claim to the movie.
And in another loss for Gray, claims that he infringed on Paramount’s copyright by involving himself in the film without its knowledge will go to trial. The writer “indisputably based his entire script on existing material,” wrote Rakoff.
In a lawsuit filed in April, Shaun Gray alleged he penned key scenes after screenwriter Eric Warren Singer and director Joseph Kosinski enlisted his help to craft the story behind the movie. An active participant in story meetings, he said he wrote 15 pivotal sequences. This includes the opening in which Maverick, played by Tom Cruise, pushes a high-tech prototype fighter jet past its limits, breaking speed records before the aircraft fails, and another scene in which he repeatedly outmaneuvers elite pilots during a training exercise, culminating in a dogfight with a trainee.
Gray argued he’s a co-author of the screenplay since he never reached a work-made-for-hire deal (which governs a production company’s employment relationship with a writer and gives it the copyright to a script) with Paramount, unlike other writers for Top Gun: Maverick.
In Friday’s summary judgment decision, the court concluded that the writer’s copyright is invalid. “Gray is a writer who indisputably based his entire script on existing material, including Top Gun characters, settings, and plot devices,” Rakoff wrote. He added that the writer’s work recaptures the Top Gun universe “in ways that entirely pervade his scenes.”
Paramount later brought counterclaims against Gray, alleging he deliberately hid his participation, with the aim of asserting claims for idea theft and seeking joint ownership of the screenplay. It accused him of fraud and infringing on its copyrights. In Friday’s decision, the court greenlit those claims for trial.
There is “sufficient evidence for a jury to conclude that Paramount reasonably relied on Gray’s alleged fraud,” Rakoff wrote. “Because of Gray’s silence, Paramount, among other things, never had the opportunity to have Gray sign any kind of employment agreement.”
Paramount and Marc Toberoff, who regularly takes on copyright lawsuits on behalf of creators and represented Gray, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Paramount has now beat two copyright lawsuits involving Top Gun: Maverick, with a federal appeals court affirming a ruling that the sequel didn’t infringe a magazine article that inspired the original 1986 film.
Source link
