Last fall,Victor Miller, who wrote the original screenplay forFriday the 13th, won a lawsuit that gave him the domestic rights to the slasher franchise under an old copyright law that grants authors rights to their original work after a period of 35 years. The case is still being appealed, but it was an important ruling within the Hollywood legal community, which was watching very closely, knowing just how much was at stake.
See, until recently, screenwriters rarely used the law to their advantage, and it was mostly employed by musicians who were eager to control their back catalog. ButEriq Gardner, the intrepid legal reporter atthe Hollywood Reporter, has looked into legal records and discovered a bunch of high-profile termination notices that were filed within the past year.
According toTHR, the most notable titles includeThe Terminator,Die Hard,BeetlejuiceandWho Framed Roger Rabbit. Apparently,Gale Anne Hurd, who co-wrote the originalTerminatormovie that was released in 1984, has moved to terminate (natch!) a copyright grant made 35 years ago. As of right now,David Ellison’s Skydance Media controls the Terminator rights, having acquired them from his sister,Megan Ellison, who bought them at auction for $20 million back in 2011. Under this law, Skydance would lose the rights, and they would revert to Hurd and her co-writer,TerminatordirectorJames Cameron, even though Cameron has previously said that she “did no actual writing at all,“per Wikipedia. Thus, if Skydance wants to make a sequel to its upcomingDark Fate, it would have to renegotiate with Cameron and Hurd – otherwise, they could shop the rights to other studios, not to mention deep-pocketed streaming services.
Hurd isn’t alone in her quest to recapture rights, as authorGary K. Wolfis looking to take back the rights to the book that became Disney’s hybrid hitWho Framed Roger Rabbit, while the family of novelistRoderick Thorpwants to terminate Fox’s rights to the bookNothing Lasts Forever, which served as the basis ofDie Hard. The same can be said for the heirs ofBeetlejuicescreenwriterMichael McDowell, who wants to reclaim the character from Warner Bros.A Nightmare on Elm StreetandPredatorare also subject to termination along with works fromStephen KingandDavid Mamet. And as time passes, more films from the mid-’80s will celebrate their 35-year anniversaries, which may make it harder for studios to make sequels and reboots from those properties.
The important thing to keep in mind, of course, is that all these authors and screenwriters who are regaining control of their work are likely to strike new deals, because sitting on the rights means that the properties aren’t generating any income. These scribes need studios, producers and financiers to make movies – or at least develop movies – so they can get paid. For example, ifDark Fateflops and the town doesn’t even want to make another Terminator movie, then the rights aren’t all that valuable to Hurd and Cameron. Which is why it’s in everyone’s best interest to return to the negotiating table. Some talks will no doubt be more public than others, but don’t freak out if a studio loses a major property, as it’s likely to surface elsewhere given the way companies are stockpiling recognizable IP these days.
Either way, studios will have two years to exploit their rights once a termination notice is filed. They won’t just lose the rights overnight. In fact, King filed a termination notice on behalf ofPet Sematary, but before he the rights reverted to him, Paramount hustled a remake into production. If they had waited until the termination went into effect and still wanted to move forward with a remake, the studio would’ve had to renegotiate its deal with King, and likely would’ve had to pay much more than they did 35 years earlier.
THR’s sources caution that studios might be hesitant to greenlight anything under a legal cloud, and that foreign rights can complicate matters, as U.S. termination law doesn’t apply overseas. At the end of the day, deals will be made, but expect to see more standoffs between creators and studios.
