As I explained in a previous article, one of the biggest conversations in the horror community right now is the current state of the Friday the 13th franchise, which is trapped in a legal battle between two parties.
It all started when Friday the 13th writer Victor Miller exercised a legal right that would revert the ownership of the story back to him. Director Sean Cunningham’s Horror, Inc. however, refutes this, and that’s why we are where we are with that.
The law is that writers can reclaim ownership of their work after 35 years.
It recently became clear to me that many other writers, like Miller, could also exercise their legal right to regain the rights to their creations from way back when. After some digging, I learned that Wes Craven’s estate has done so with A Nightmare on Elm Street, and have heard of several other potential franchises that could be reverting back to their creators.
Here’s how THR explains it:
“In the late 1970s, Congress amended the law to allow authors to grab back rights from studios after waiting a few decades. Until now, the termination provision has largely been exploited by musicians, not screenwriters. But records show a flurry of termination notices in the past year — under law, they can come 35 years after publication — which threatens to unsettle who owns the ability to make sequels and reboots of iconic films from the mid- to late-’80s.”
The Hollywood Reporter just dropped the first of many atomic bombs today, sharing several key franchises that have allegedly received copyright termination notices. The list includes many favorites such as The Terminator (which we already knew was set to revert to Gale Anne Hurd and James Cameron) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but also reveals major genre titles from Predator (Jim and John Thomas) to Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice (Michael McDowell).
There’s also the shocker that Paramount fast-tracked the new Pet Sematary knowing that they were on the verge of losing the rights to author Stephen King, who reportedly started quietly reclaiming the rights to his works over the past few years. (The summarized list included “The Mist”, “The Dead Zone”, “Cujo”, “Children of the Corn”, “Creepshow” and “Cat’s Eye”.)
“Since the author has to give at least two years notice of the termination, that gives the studios two years notice that it’s ‘use it or lose it,’” entertainment attorney Larry Zerner told the site. “Even if Paramount was on the fence about a remake, once the termination went into effect, it would be out of their hands or they would have to pay a much larger fee.”
This news is nothing short of cataclysmic because this article is quite literally the tip of the iceberg – we will be hearing about a lot of films shifting hands over the next few years.
Is this good or bad news? Well, we’re always rooting for the artist and are happy the writers are exercising their right. Also, this is a great opportunity for artists to pluck franchises away from studios who refuse to make more films and/or rush cheap, half-assed pieces of crap like Dimension Films did for decades.
This major “shakeup” could also result in the dream pairing of major franchises with parties who actually want to make cool, new films – and, it’s worth noting that these rights holders could make fresh deals in which they control the rights from film-to-film, which keeps the studios and distributors honest. From where I’m sitting, this is a lot of good news.
With that said, it’s important to understand that these rights are only reverting back within the United States, which means that the current rights holders still retain their international/foreign rights. What does this mean? Well, in short, the rights holder would have to make a deal with a studio who, in turn, is willing to make their own deal with the studio releasing their property internationally. Would Lionsgate/Fox/Sony/Paramount, etc. make a film in the States and allow Warner Bros. to release it internationally? Probably, but it’s just another wrinkle that needs to be ironed out as a result of these mass terminations.
This is going to be a growing story over the next few years and we’ll do our best to report on it accurately, no matter how complicated things get. Watch this spot for more as it comes in.
