A few days ago, we posted about an upcoming legal battle for the rights to Friday the 13th. The battle is between original writer Victor Miller and Horror, Inc. and Manny Company and may very well determine who has the power to license new entries in the franchise.

In order to get more information on this matter, Fridaythe13thFranchise reached out to Larry Zerner (who played Shelly in Friday the 13th Part 3), who went on to become an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles and has his own practice. Basically, what this boils down to is that Miller is using a provision in copyright law by which a creator of an original work must wait 35 years before they can put forth a claim to obtain and reclaim the works that they have created. The claim must be submitted two years before the termination date, which is why the lawsuit will happen in the near future but the rights will only revert to Miller, if he wins, in 2018.

Here’s where things get interesting: the reason a lawsuit is even happening is because Horror Inc. and Manny Company are trying to beat him to the punch by trying to stop his termination of rights filing. An out of court settlement is always an option at this point but if that doesn’t happen then it’s their duty to prove that Miller was a “writer-for-hire”, which means he doesn’t own the original material.

Another way they can maintain the rights is if they prove that Miller and director Sean S. Cunningham were in constant communication, including close proximity, during the writing and creation of the film. By doing so, they can say that Miller wasn’t the “mastermind” behind the story. However, if their communications were done primarily over the phone with little to no physical interaction, then it only fuels Miller’s fire all the more.

As of now, nothing is certain and no judgements have been made. At this point, we’ll simply have to wait and see what happens in the coming weeks.

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