Top Gun: Maverick
hit with copyright lawsuit amid box office success
As
Top Gun: Maverick
continues to soar at the box office, legal troubles await Paramount on the tarmac.
The studio behind the sequel is being sued for copyright infringement by the family
of the author whose article inspired the original film, 1986's
Top Gun
.
Late writer Ehud Yonay's widow and son, Shosh and Yuval Yonay, are accusing Paramount
of failing to reacquire rights to the article before releasing the "derivative" sequel.
the plaintiffs allege that Paramount completed
Top Gun: Maverick
in May 2021
over a year after the copyright to the story had "reverted" back to them under the Copyright Act in January 2020.
Paramount deliberately ignored this, thumbing its nose at the statute," reads the lawsuit, which was obtained and shared in full
Paramount argued that
Maverick
was "sufficiently completed" by the effective termination date of Jan.