Progress has finally been made in the lawsuit against screenwriter Victor Miller by Friday the 13th producers that just never seemed to end. As the story goes, Miller sought to reclaim rights to the original film as the writer of the script, utilizing a provision of US Copyright Law that allowed him to do so after 35 years. Horror, Inc. producers, the current rights-holders which included director Sean Cunningham, responded by suing Miller rather than work out a settlement.
After a lengthy review, a judge recently ruled in favor of Miller. It was concluded that Miller will regain the rights to his screenplay, but only in the United States. Additionally, only the elements from the first film will apply, which does not include adult, murderous version of Jason Voorhees depicted in the sequels. What happens next will depend on Horror Inc., and if the producers choose to appeal the court’s ruling.
Reaching out with an official statement, Horror Inc. has offered a response to the ruling. They confirm that an appeal is possible, while also teasing more projects including Jason Voorhees in the future. From Bloody Disgusting:
“We are disappointed in the court’s ruling and disagree with its conclusion. We are considering our options including an appeal. In the meantime, the court was very clear that its ruling in favor of Mr. Miller is limited to the original screenplay in which Jason’s mother is the killer and that Mr. Miller’s termination notice did not purport to terminate the separate copyright in the iconic supernatural killer who wears a hockey mask. It also does not grant any rights to Mr. Miller that would enable him to use any element of the original screenplay outside of the United States.
Following the guidelines set down by the Court’s ruling, we intend to aggressively explore many opportunities for new projects featuring settings and characters (including the hockey mask-wearing killer) not included in Mr. Miller’s screenplay, and in fact are currently in development on new projects that are consistent with the ruling which will be announced soon.”
It seems that Horror Inc. wants to move on with Jason, shutting Miller out by not using any of the elements from the first film. This would include not only the boy version of Jason and his mother Mrs. Voorhees, but other characters such as Crazy Ralph and Alice Hardy. This could also mean that they won’t be using the setting of Camp Crystal Lake for future Jason films, putting the hockey-masked killer in some new location once again.
We’ll be keeping an eye out for these “new projects” involving Jason which Horror Inc. is teasing. Stay tuned for more updates.
