‘Friday the 13th’ Legal Battle to be Resolved Next Year

For anyone that has been following the ongoing legal battle for the Friday the 13th series, there could be some good news coming next year. Last year, Friday the 13th screenwriter Victor Miller was granted  sole ownership of the original screenplay, but director Sean Cunningham contested this decision, meaning that franchise was still stuck in limbo. Bloody Disgusting bled some new news on the situation this weekend that could mean a final resolution to the entire ordeal. 

The argument continues to be that Miller wrote the screenplay as a “work-for-hire,” and therefore never should’ve been able to gain rights to the screenplay in the first place. While the trial judge had ruled that the rights go to Miller after all these years under the Copyright Act’s termination right, which allows authors to regain rights to work they signed over to a company, Cunningham and Horror Inc. are hoping that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals will reverse that decision in the coming months.

Friday the 13th Part III star and Copyright lawyer, Larry Zerner, took to twitter with this …

Update in Horror, Inc. v. Miller (#Fridaythe13th case). The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals has proposed oral arguments for the week of February 10th, 2020.

This means there will probably be a decision by June 2020.

— Larry Zerner (@Zernerlaw) November 22, 2019

 

If this does get resolved early on in 2020, we could well get more Friday the 13th very soon,! And maybe even Friday the 13th the Video Game can continue its development?

Let us know how you feel about the whole ordeal in the comments below and we’ll be back with more news on this when it drops.