Top Gun: why the heirs of the writer who inspired the successful film have sued Paramount studios
- Annabelle Liang
- Business Journalist, BBC News
image source, Paramount Pictures
The family of the Israeli author who wrote the article that inspired the film top gunstarring Tom Cruise, filed a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures for copyright infringement after the release of the sequel Top Gun: Maverick last month.
Ehud Yonay’s family argues that the studio no longer had the rights to the 1983 “Top Guns” report when it released the new film.
Paramount argued that the lawsuit was “meritless” and vowed to fight it.
The film grossed US$548 million during its first ten days of global screening.
It had the fourth highest-grossing weekend of any Covid-era production, following the hits Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness Y TheBatman.
Copyright
In Top Gun: Marvel Cruise reprises the role of US Navy pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell from the original film.
image source, Getty Images
The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles federal court by Ehud’s widow and son, argues that Paramount did not reacquire the rights to the article after it expired under the U.S. copyright act. .USA
With the lawsuit, they seek compensation from the studio for unspecified damages, including profits generated by the film. Top Gun: Maverick.
According to the lawsuit, the franchise top gun it would not exist without “the literary efforts and evocative prose and narrative” of Ehud.
Expiration of terms
The lawsuit also alleges that the Yonays informed Paramount in 2018 that the rights they had to Ehud’s article would end two years later.
He added that the studio had lost the rights to the article in January 2020.
“As much as Paramount wants to pretend otherwise, they made a sequel to top gun after losing the rights,” lawyer Marc Toberoff, who represents the Yonays, told the BBC.
image source, Paramount Pictures
In a statement, Paramount said: “The claims are without merit and we will vigorously defend ourselves.”
Los Angeles city attorney Mitra Ahouraian told the BBC that Paramount’s plans were to produce Top Gun: Maverick in 2018 and release it in 2019, but they were delayed by the covid-19 pandemic.
“Timing is going to be very important in this case because the termination notice was sent so that it would have an effective date of 2020,” Ahourain explained.
The sequel finds Maverick back at the flight academy as an instructor in charge of training a new generation of pilots.
The new movie gave superstar Tom Cruise his first weekend of $100 million at the box office. Previously, his highest weekend box office figure was $64 million in 2005 with Steven Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds.”
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