Top Gun: Maverick, the new sequel to 1986’s Top Gun, has been doing very well at the box office, but the heirs of the author of a 1983 magazine article on which the original film was based have filed a lawsuit over it.
Ehud Yonay wrote the article about the Navy Fighter Weapons School known as Top Gun at Naval Air Station Miramar in California and Paramount quickly optioned it, using it as the basis for the first film and giving Yonay “based on” credit. But now the late Yonay’s heirs claim Paramount no longer owns the copyright and shouldn’t have released a sequel…
The US Copyright Act allows authors to retrieve the rights to their works after 35 years, and Yonay’s widow and son filed a notice to reclaim the rights to the article in 2018, and they say Paramount was notified. They say the rights reverted to them in 2020.
Paramount has promised to “vigorously defend” itself against the allegations, contending the film was “sufficiently completed” by January 2020, before copyright reverted to the Yonay’s. The suit is seeking damages, and an injunction to stop screenings and any further distribution of the movie!
Cases like this might become more common, as studios continue to revive older franchises. One of the lawyers representing the Yonay family also represented the writers of the original “Predator” movie, who sued 20th Century to regain the rights to their screenplay. He’s also representing the heirs of some comic book writers, who want to regain the rights to characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Sources: Hollywood Reporter, Deadline
