It’s been a long road but it appears we’re heading toward some sort of closure in regards to the Friday the 13th rights battle.
Friday the 13th Part 3 star and entertainment lawyer Larry Zerner has been keeping fans updated on the progress of the messy legal battle over the franchise’s rights that’s pitted Sean Cunningham/Horror Inc. against original screenwriter Victor Miller.
According to Zerner, the case is officially over as Cunningham/Horror Inc. has failed to file a cert petition by the 4 pm deadline. As of this writing, Victor Miller is allegedly the official rights holder to the original Friday the 13th screenplay.
It’s 4 pm and I still don’t see a cert petition filed with the Supreme Court in the Friday the 13th case. What does this mean? Well, it means the case is officially over and Victor Miller owns the rights to his screenplay in F13 (but only in the US). 1/
— Larry Zerner (@Zernerlaw) December 30, 2021
What does this mean for the future of the Friday the 13th franchise and Jason Voorhees? It’s a bit complicated, but the two sides working on or having reached a resolution would be the best-case scenario for horror fans.
If the two sides fail to reach any sort of agreement, here’s how the rights break down, according to Zerner:
Can Victor and Sean just each make their own separate movies? Not really, because Victor only owns US rights and only to the first script and Sean owns adult, hockey mask-wearing Jason but can’t legally use him in a movie without Victor’s permission. It’s complicated. 4/
— Larry Zerner (@Zernerlaw) December 30, 2021
To put it simply, my understanding is that Victor Miller could allow a studio to produce a Friday the 13th remake, but it could only be released in the United States. What’s new to this writer is that Sean can’t legally use Jason Voorhees in a movie without Victor’s permission and that truly is crippling.
The hope here is that the two parties can come to some sort of agreement and move forward together, otherwise, it’s going to be exceptionally hard to find a workaround to the legal ramifications.
If you’d like to learn more about the entire case, you can start here or get a more recent recap by clicking here. We’ll report back with any updates as soon as they come in.
