Top Gun: Maverick is back in the danger zone due to a potential copyright breach.
The recently released Top Gun sequel may have become Tom Cruise’s highest-grossing blockbuster ever, but it looks as though Paramount may not be celebrating just yet, as a new lawsuit takes the wind from their jets.
The new lawsuit comes from the estate of Ehud Yonay – author of a 1983 magazine article titled “Top Guns” which inspired the original ‘80s classic.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Monday at the Los Angeles federal court by Yonay’s wife and son, Shosh and Yuval, alleges that Paramount failed to reacquire the rights to Ehud’s magazine article after the rights were terminated under the US Copyright Act.
The family has petitioned for the distribution of Top Gun: Maverick to be ceased immediately and is seeking unspecified damages, which include profits from the hit movie.
According to the lawsuit, the generation-spanning franchise would not have existed had it not been for Yonay’s “literary efforts and evocative prose and narrative”. The lawsuit reveals the circumstances of Top Gun’s rights termination after the family notified Paramount in 2018 that the rights to Yonay’s article would be terminated two years later.
The studio lost the copyright in January 2020 and the suit alleges that Top Gun: Maverick was completed in May 2021. They argue that Paramount would need to license the article again in order to make anything derivative of it.
However, it’s not quite that simple.
“The article is not the screenplay, and Paramount can argue that the article was basically just a story idea and nothing more,” entertainment attorney Mark Litwak told IndieWire. “Ideas are not copyrightable. It’s not always clear when an idea is embellished enough, when it becomes more than an idea, it becomes a work of authorship. It’s not a clear line.”
“It may be difficult to say this new sequel move has nothing to do with the original article,” he continued. “That may be a hard sell.” Particularly difficult since Paramount did originally license the article for the 1986 movie.
The article itself was written in an age before GoPro cameras, taking readers into the cockpits of the Navy Fighter Weapons School in San Diego (aka Top Gun) using extensively detailed descriptions and a narrative approach that captured the thrills and rivalry of the school.
A Paramount representative stated: “These claims are without merit, and we will defend ourselves vigorously.”
Whether or not the case will go to court remains to be seen – the case will likely settle long before that. But after making a sequel without licensing the original work, Paramount may want to scramble its jets.
Read more about Top Gun: Maverick with our explainer of Top Gun: Maverick's ending, a US Navy fighter pilot reacting to Top Gun, and the top 10 aerial dogfights of all time.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
Continue reading...
The recently released Top Gun sequel may have become Tom Cruise’s highest-grossing blockbuster ever, but it looks as though Paramount may not be celebrating just yet, as a new lawsuit takes the wind from their jets.
The new lawsuit comes from the estate of Ehud Yonay – author of a 1983 magazine article titled “Top Guns” which inspired the original ‘80s classic.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Monday at the Los Angeles federal court by Yonay’s wife and son, Shosh and Yuval, alleges that Paramount failed to reacquire the rights to Ehud’s magazine article after the rights were terminated under the US Copyright Act.
The family has petitioned for the distribution of Top Gun: Maverick to be ceased immediately and is seeking unspecified damages, which include profits from the hit movie.
According to the lawsuit, the generation-spanning franchise would not have existed had it not been for Yonay’s “literary efforts and evocative prose and narrative”. The lawsuit reveals the circumstances of Top Gun’s rights termination after the family notified Paramount in 2018 that the rights to Yonay’s article would be terminated two years later.
The studio lost the copyright in January 2020 and the suit alleges that Top Gun: Maverick was completed in May 2021. They argue that Paramount would need to license the article again in order to make anything derivative of it.
However, it’s not quite that simple.
“The article is not the screenplay, and Paramount can argue that the article was basically just a story idea and nothing more,” entertainment attorney Mark Litwak told IndieWire. “Ideas are not copyrightable. It’s not always clear when an idea is embellished enough, when it becomes more than an idea, it becomes a work of authorship. It’s not a clear line.”
“It may be difficult to say this new sequel move has nothing to do with the original article,” he continued. “That may be a hard sell.” Particularly difficult since Paramount did originally license the article for the 1986 movie.
The article itself was written in an age before GoPro cameras, taking readers into the cockpits of the Navy Fighter Weapons School in San Diego (aka Top Gun) using extensively detailed descriptions and a narrative approach that captured the thrills and rivalry of the school.
A Paramount representative stated: “These claims are without merit, and we will defend ourselves vigorously.”
Whether or not the case will go to court remains to be seen – the case will likely settle long before that. But after making a sequel without licensing the original work, Paramount may want to scramble its jets.
Read more about Top Gun: Maverick with our explainer of Top Gun: Maverick's ending, a US Navy fighter pilot reacting to Top Gun, and the top 10 aerial dogfights of all time.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
Continue reading...