We still have no idea how any of this is going to shake out, but we learned over the weekend that original Friday the 13th screenwriter Victor Miller has prevailed in a lengthy legal battle that will determine the future fate of the franchise. Following the legal ruling over the weekend, franchise producer Horror, Inc. provided Bloody Disgusting with a statement.
Horror, Inc. told us this morning…
“We are disappointed in the court’s ruling and disagree with its conclusion. We are considering our options including an appeal. In the meantime, the court was very clear that its ruling in favor of Mr. Miller is limited to the original screenplay in which Jason’s mother is the killer and that Mr. Miller’s termination notice did not purport to terminate the separate copyright in the iconic supernatural killer who wears a hockey mask. It also does not grant any rights to Mr. Miller that would enable him to use any element of the original screenplay outside of the United States.
“Following the guidelines set down by the Court’s ruling, we intend to aggressively explore many opportunities for new projects featuring settings and characters (including the hockey mask-wearing killer) not included in Mr. Miller’s screenplay, and in fact are currently in development on new projects that are consistent with the ruling which will be announced soon.”
As you can tell, this is all *super* confusing, and it’s hard to really figure out who is going to own what, going forward. As always, Friday the 13th Part III star Larry Zerner, who is an entertainment lawyer, has chimed in to bring some clarity to all of this as well as offer his take on what’s going on. In a series of tweets today, Zerner broke it all down for us.
“Just a quick note on the Friday the 13th lawsuit. The judge’s opinion is under seal and once it’s out I’ll have a deeper dive. One thing you should know is that even though Victor won, his lawsuit only affects the U.S. rights,” Zerner began. “Sean does and will control foreign rights to the film no matter whether Victor’s win holds up on appeal. So, neither Victor nor Sean can make a movie without them coming to a deal because no studio will make a new F13 movie that can’t be released domestically and foreign.”
Zerner continued, digging much deeper…
“I read the decision in Horror Inc. v. Miller and here’s my take on the case. First, a little background. The Copyright Act allows authors to terminate grants of their copyright interest 35 years after the transfer. Victor Miller (who wrote the original F13 movie) sent a notice of termination to the current owners of the F13 copyright in July 2016 which went into effect in July 2018. Horror, Inc. (owned by Sean Cunningham, the producer of F13) then sued Victor. Horror’s argument was that although the Copyright Act allows for this termination right there is an exception if the screenplay was written as a “work made for hire.” Horror claimed that Victor wrote the screenplay as a work-for-hire. To qualify as a work-for-hire, the Copyright Act says that that one of two conditions must exist: 1) there is a writing signed by the parties stating that the screenplay was written as a work-for-hire or 2) the author was an “employee” of the contracting party. The parties agreed that there was no writing to meet the first condition so, Horror was arguing that Victor was Sean’s employee when he wrote the script. In a 1989 case (CCNV v. Reid, 490 U.S. 730), the Supreme Ct gave a list of 13 factors to determine whether the hired party is an employee or independent contractor. These factors include 1) the right to control the manner of creation, 2) the skill required, 3) whether employee benefits were given, 4) the tax treatment of the hired party, 5) whether the hiring party can assign additional projects.”
“The court analyzed the 13 factors and determined that they squarely landed on a determination that Victor was NOT an employee. Therefore, Victor had every right to terminate the rights. Horror tried to argue that even if the 13 factors went in Victor’s favor, because Victor was a WGA member and only “employees” can belong to a labor union, that Victor must be an employee for copyright purposes. The Court just didn’t buy that argument at all. Horror also argued that Sean was a co-author of the screenplay but the Court said that Sean was barred by the statute of limitations from making that argument. Horror also wanted the judge to rule on whether Victor’s copyright extended to the adult hockey-mask wearing Jason that we know and love, and that didn’t appear in the original F13 movie. The Court declined to express any opinion on that subject.“
“So, what happens next? Horror could appeal, but that will be at least 2 and more likely 3-4 years of waiting for a resolution. Also, IMHO, the chance of Horror winning on appeal is poor. If Horror doesn’t appeal, then it has to make a deal with Victor in order to make a new movie. Victor only owns the U.S. rights to the original movie. Horror owns the foreign rights to the first movie and to all the other movies. Deciding how much money should be received from future movies and merchandise is a really difficult question. If you look at the 2009 remake for an example, that movie took elements from Parts 1-4. How much was Victor’s contribution worth? And what about Jason merchandise? How do you split the royalties on all the Jason figures?. It’s a really difficult question for which there is no set answer. As for the game, it is and shall always be a great game. But even if Victor and Sean work things out, the guys at [Gun Media] will not be adding new content.”
“But hopefully, Victor and Sean will work something out and get moving on a new F13 movie ASAP. With the new Halloween certain to be a blockbuster, this is the best time to be forging ahead on a new movie. 3-4 years from now is way too long to wait.”
I read the decision in Horror Inc. v. Miller and here’s my take on the case. First, a little background. The Copyright Act allows authors to terminate grants of their copyright interest 35 years after the transfer. https://t.co/upJUe9ZcWD 1/
— Larry Zerner (@Zernerlaw) October 1, 2018
