Yesterday was a pretty big day for the Friday the 13th franchise, marking the eleventh anniversary of the 2009 remake – which quite depressingly means that it’s been eleven years since we last saw Jason Voorhees – as well as the latest round of oral arguments in the messy legal battle over the franchise’s rights: Sean Cunningham/Horror Inc. vs. Victor Miller.
Long story short, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has been tasked with deciding if Miller retains ownership of the original film’s script (back in 2018, a trial judge had ruled that the U.S. rights go to Miller after all these years under the Copyright Act’s termination right) or if those rights will revert back to Cunningham, and oral arguments took place yesterday.
As always at a time like this we turn to Friday the 13th Part 3 star and entertainment lawyer Larry Zerner, who has provided a full breakdown of yesterday’s events over on Twitter.
The basic gist here is Cunningham/Horror Inc. are arguing that Miller was a hired employee when he wrote the original Friday the 13th script, meaning he never should’ve been able to claim the rights to that script in the first place. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Zerner says, should decide in May or June of this year whether or not that argument holds any water.
Zerner explains, “The court can do one of three things. 1) Affirm that Victor won and he owns the rights to the first F13, 2) Reverse and say that Sean owns all the rights or 3) Send it back to the district court for a trial.” He adds, “If I had to pick, I would bet that the court affirms and holds that Victor owns the rights (but you never know). If either side loses, they can appeal to the Supreme Court, but very unlikely that the S.Ct. would accept the case.”
If Miller wins this latest battle, as Zerner predicts, it would still mean that he’ll eventually have to work with Cunningham in order for the franchise to be brought back to life – Miller, after all, only owns the rights to the original script and the characters and elements present in it; this does not include the adult, hockey-mask wearing Jason Voorhees, who did not appear in that film. A win from Cunningham, however, would potentially make the road to Jason’s return a whole lot shorter. No matter who wins, the case could be going to the Supreme Court next.
In other words, don’t expect a neat bow to be put onto this one in May/June.
For the full breakdown, check out Zerner’s complete Twitter thread down below.
The oral argument in Horror Inc. v. Miller was just posted. Here’s my take on what happened. Note: If you’re not a copyright lawyer, a lot of this is a technical discussion of copyright law https://t.co/KJjl1msY4p pic.twitter.com/IHo5PiWxZl
— Larry Zerner (@Zernerlaw) February 13, 2020
First up was Horror Inc.’s (i.e., Sean Cunningham’s) lawyer Kathleen Sullivan. Her main argument was that the lower court erred by not considering the fact that this was a WGA agreement as part of the CCNV v. Reid factors. The judges gave a lot of push back to this argument pic.twitter.com/gNlARGpfS3
— Larry Zerner (@Zernerlaw) February 13, 2020
CCNV v. Reid lays out 9 factors that a court must look at in deciding whether someone is an employee or an independent contractor. KS argued that although no other courts have ruled this way, the court should consider WGA membership as a 10th factor. 3/
— Larry Zerner (@Zernerlaw) February 13, 2020
Judges asked a lot of questions about this and (IMHO) they didn’t seem to be buying her argument). There was also discussion over the tax treatment of Victor’s payments (e.g., withholding). She said it was Victor’s burden to prove this and he didn’t do so 4/
— Larry Zerner (@Zernerlaw) February 13, 2020
Finally, she argued that Sean had control over Victor when he wrote the script. Then she ran out of time. Next up, Mark Toberoff for Victor Miller 5/
— Larry Zerner (@Zernerlaw) February 13, 2020
MT argued it wasn’t that the judge didn’t consider the WGA, he just gave it no weight. Also said that Victor did prove that there were no tax deductions on the script payment. And said that Sean never even made the health care payments to the WGA so what is he talking about? 6/
— Larry Zerner (@Zernerlaw) February 13, 2020
He said that although the judge found the issue of control weight slightly in Sean’s favor, the other factors all weighed strongly in Victor’s favor. MT got less pushback than Sean’s lawyer did from the court (not that you can always tell anything from that fact). 7/
— Larry Zerner (@Zernerlaw) February 13, 2020
MT finished, “My only regret is that this hearing is on Thursday the 13th, not Friday the 13th.” That got a laugh from the court. 8/
— Larry Zerner (@Zernerlaw) February 13, 2020
KS got back up. She said that if the Appellate court wasn’t going to rule in Sean’s favor, at a minimum they should send it back to the district court for a trial on these facts 9/ pic.twitter.com/yyOoV02Gcm
— Larry Zerner (@Zernerlaw) February 13, 2020
That was it. The court should rule in May or June. The court can do one of three things. 1) Affirm that Victor won and he owns the rights to the first F13, 2) Reverse and say that Sean owns all the rights or 3) send it back to the district court for a trial. 10/
— Larry Zerner (@Zernerlaw) February 13, 2020
If I had to pick, I would bet that the court affirms and holds that Victor owns the rights (but you never know). If either side loses, they can appeal to the Supreme Court, but very unlikely that the S.Ct. would accept the case. That’s it for today. Keep following for updates. pic.twitter.com/3kllvPcxI1
— Larry Zerner (@Zernerlaw) February 13, 2020
