Victor Mill Wins Friday the 13th Copyright Lawsuit

[Lon of the Dead]

https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/...mestic-rights/

This is a big deal. Not just for Miller, but for screenwriters in general.

Though screenplay theft is actually pretty rare (it's simply cheaper to buy someone's script outright than steal it and risk getting sued) it's actually not unheard of for writers to get the short end of the stick when it comes to sequelizing characters they created. The fact that Jason Voorhees was never a living character in the first film is neither here nor there. The character was created by Victor Miller. Therefore, he would be entitled to a cut of any film thereafter to feature that character.

Sean Cunningham, however, argued that Miller's script was a work-for-hire job and that upon turning over the script and being paid for it, the character and everything therein was now his, and that Miller wasn't entitled to any cuts from future F13 movies that feature that character. Also not true. If Miller had been writing for a pre-existing intellectual property -- say, he'd been commissioned to write a new James Bond movie -- obviously he doesn't get to keep the rights to that character. He's entitled only to what he was paid in commission, and whatever profit points that may have been negotiated.

But there was no pre-existing intellectual property in the case of F13. Cunningham is on record -- many, many times, in interviews both in print and captured on camera -- saying that he had no idea what movie he would make. All he had was a title and a poster. The script, in its entirety, to include all characters and plotting, was generated by Victor Miller alone.

In short, there would be no Friday the 13th parts 2-8, Jason Goes to Hell, Jason X, Freddy vs Jason or Friday the 13th '09 if not for Victor Miller having created Jason Voorhees. But he didn't receive one cent from any of those films.

So this win was long, long overdue. And it's going to have some big ramifications throughout the industry.

[Toby]

Fuck yes! This is justice! Just like Frank Darabont! I hope Victor Miller gets every penny owed to him from the studios, and Sean Cunningham can just go on my shit list when it comes to arguing with creators. Because without the writers who stand in to write a map for you to direct then you're up shit's creek without a paddle and I had no idea until about 2 years ago that Victor Miller didn't get any kind of compensation for the characters he created.

Fuck Sean S. Cunningham. Fuck Paramount and fuck New Line.

The industry is in for a rude awakening and creatives deserve better and the industry needs to be purged and changed for the better and hitting them where it hurts most their wallets will insure that 10-fold!

Curious to see where this goes and where Victor may sell the rights to see what happens with his characters. Either way, nice to see Jason back with his father after all these years.

[Red]

The lawsuit killed the franchise (films, games, etc).

Don't really see it recovering anytime soon, even with this news.

[Lon of the Dead]

I wouldn't necessarily say it was the lawsuit that killed the franchise. As there never would have been a lawsuit if Miller had ever received even a shred of credit and monetary compensation, the blame lands squarely on Sean Cunningham and New Line (and previously Paramount).

I do agree there probably won't be any new F13 projects coming up any time soon, though. Although I would like to hear what Miller would have done with a part 2. As Miller has said, Jason is long dead in the first film and exists only as a memory of the real killer, his mother Pamela. And since he killed Pamela in the first one, certainly he wouldn't have included her in a sequel. So what might Victor Miller have done if he'd kept on to write a part 2, which wouldn't have included an illogically returned Jason?

That, I would be interested in seeing.