Friday The 13th (Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Against Producer)
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Friday The 13th (Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Against Producer)
The CW is heading to Crystal Lake. The network topper Mark Pedowitz today confirmed that the CW is developing Friday The 13th, a drama series based on the long-running feature franchise. The series adaptation will be written by Steve Mitchell & Craig Van Sickle, creators of the 1996 NBC series The Pretender through CBS TV Studios. “They are new in development,” Pedowitz told Deadline.
I hear that in the series reimagines the masked Jason with a stronger feel of grounded reality. Described as a sophisticated, horror/crime thriller, the potential Friday The 13th series is about the ongoing quest of a detective’s search for his missing brother that is somehow tied to Jason Vorhees, a long thought dead serial killer who has now returned to wreak havoc in the new Crystal Lake.
The Friday The 13th series project originated last year when Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films and Crystal Lake Entertainment sealed a deal to produce a new hourlong dramatic series based upon the characters and settings of the franchise, with Sean S. Cunningham, who helmed the 1980 original, executive producing along with EFO Films principals Randall Emmett & George Furla and Mark Canton, among others. Bill Basso (Terminator) and Jordu Schell (Avatar) were tapped at the time to script a storyline that re-imagines Jason in multiple time periods.
Cunningham earlier this year hinted of interest from the CW, which recently quietly bought the the project off-cycle with Mitchell and Van Sickle as writers. The duo executive produce with Cunningham, Emmett, Furla and Canton.
Since the franchise was launched with the 1980 Friday The 13th, there have been 13 movies, most recently Friday The 13th in 2009 directed by Marcus Nispel.
In addition to Friday The 13th, the CW is developing a series based on movies The Notebook, Little Women and Frequency, as well as an adaptation of Archie Comics’ Riverdale.
“I’m a big believer in titles and franchises,” Pedowitz said at TCA today. “It makes them break out of the pack in some ways.”
Last edited by WyldeMan on 9/30/2018, 7:56 am; edited 4 times in total
ForeverBlu- Posts : 3834
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Re: Friday The 13th (Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Against Producer)
ForeverBlu wrote:Sigh...
LOL
Friday the 13th, on The CW.
Holy shit. This is going to suck.
Rusty- Posts : 3861
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UltimateMarvel- Posts : 10204
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Re: Friday The 13th (Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Against Producer)
Rusty Cunt wrote:ForeverBlu wrote:Sigh...
LOL
Friday the 13th, on The CW.
Holy shit. This is going to suck.
At least if it's going to prime time the CW is far more violent than anything on ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX. Have you seen The 100? Those kids are committing genocide on a nearly weekly basis, the body count is in the thousands after only 26 episodes.
Supernatural has also shown the leniency for violence and gore under the newer CW. This will come down to casting and writing but then again, none of those things ever seem to have an effect on this ridiculous franchise. The woman will be gorgeous but everybody will be from previous CW shows.
UltimateMarvel wrote:
It's funny you would use that gif if you read the full article and also noticed they are adapting The Notebook too! HAHAHAHA.
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Re: Friday The 13th (Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Against Producer)
I did. Why can't they come up with something original? Definitely going to be skipping this unless it really catches my interest somehow. This kind of thing is not meant to be a series though, nor is The Notebook.
Too bad Padelecki is on another show. It would have picked up right after the last movie.
Too bad Padelecki is on another show. It would have picked up right after the last movie.
UltimateMarvel- Posts : 10204
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Re: Friday The 13th (Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Against Producer)
UltimateMarvel wrote:I did. Why can't they come up with something original? Definitely going to be skipping this unless it really catches my interest somehow. This kind of thing is not meant to be a series though, nor is The Notebook.
They've already had success adapting none original materials so far with TVD, Originals, Flash, Arrow, Beauty and The 100.
The Notebook will be focused on the love story in the 40's and ditch the old man flashbacks. So essentially you've got another teen romance, not like it'll be hard to find material for a series like that on a network like the CW.
For Friday the 13th all you need to do is give your characters zero depth and ridiculous deaths. They got a dozen movies out of that bullshit underdeveloped concept, something tells me they can make a series out of it too.
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Re: Friday The 13th (Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Against Producer)
I think this will be good. CW can get away with a lot of gore that the other networks can't seem to get away with. Plus it's F13 so it's not like you need a very deep story. Just give us a good story set at camp with Jason running around killing campers. No need for a 22+ episode season. Go the Scream route.
detective392- Posts : 389
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Re: Friday The 13th (Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Against Producer)
Rarely is it reported that a project is straight up dead, but news out of the ongoing TCA is that the CW “Friday the 13th” project is just that.
Back in April it was reported that CW had already axed the project, while in July it was explained that CW had put the project on hold with plans to revisit next April. In the same report it was explained that the show could potentially move to other networks, including larger streaming services.
So, unless you’re a huge advocate of CW, this could be good news. I would much rather see Jason and the Voorhees family on Amazon, Hulu, Netflix or any other cable channel that’s not CW or MTV.
The Friday the 13th series adaptation was being developed by Steve Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle, creators of the 1996 NBC series “The Pretender” through CBS TV Studios.
The project originated when Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films and Crystal Lake Entertainment sealed a deal to produce a new hourlong dramatic series based upon the characters and settings of the franchise, with Sean S. Cunningham, who helmed the 1980 original, executive producing along with EFO Films principals Randall Emmett & George Furla and Mark Canton, among others.
Bill Basso (Terminator) and Jordu Schell (Avatar) were tapped at the time to script a storyline that re-imagines Jason in multiple time periods. Details on the remake are sketchy but the idea had been to do a contemporary series focusing on the eclectic characters of Crystal Lake who are forced to confront the return of the killer, as new secrets about his wacky family are revealed. The masked Jason is being reimagined with a stronger feel of grounded reality.
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ForeverBlu- Posts : 3834
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Rusty- Posts : 3861
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Re: Friday The 13th (Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Against Producer)
ForeverBlu wrote:Yay!
Maybe AMC will give it a go.
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Re: Friday The 13th (Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Against Producer)
WyldeMan wrote:ForeverBlu wrote:Yay!
Maybe AMC will give it a go.
I wouldn't hate that.
Has HBO ever done horror?
Rusty- Posts : 3861
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Re: Friday The 13th (Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Against Producer)
Rusty Cunt wrote:I wouldn't hate that.
Has HBO ever done horror?
Not unless you count the channels strange obsession with rape and needing it as a story point on every series they've ever aired.
True Blood is the only "horror" series they've ever aired and that doesn't even count.
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Re: Friday The 13th (Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Against Producer)
WyldeMan wrote:Rusty Cunt wrote:I wouldn't hate that.
Has HBO ever done horror?
Not unless you count the channels strange obsession with rape and needing it as a story point on every series they've ever aired.
True Blood is the only "horror" series they've ever aired and that doesn't even count.
Haha. True Blood does not count.
I wouldn't mind a mad creepy horror TV show. Proper horror, not current Supernatural or AHS.
I guess the first season of True Detective was the closest they they've come to genuine creep (until that retarded finale). Maybe Netflix should take a stab at it.
Rusty- Posts : 3861
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Re: Friday The 13th (Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Against Producer)
Rusty Cunt wrote:Haha. True Blood does not count.
I wouldn't mind a mad creepy horror TV show. Proper horror, not current Supernatural or AHS.
I guess the first season of True Detective was the closest they they've come to genuine creep (until that retarded finale). Maybe Netflix should take a stab at it.
True Blood was what all modern day fanger shows are about, thousand year old dead men and the teenage girls who love them.
Outcast is a pretty damned good horror entry though.
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Re: Friday The 13th (Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Against Producer)
‘Friday the 13th’ Reboot Axed by Paramount
Paramount has decided to back off on its reboot of the iconic “Friday the 13th” horror franchise, which had been in development for several years at the studio.
Paramount announced Monday that it had pulled “Friday the 13th” from its Oct. 13 release date and filled the slot with the Jennifer Lawrence movie “mother!,” but gave no further explanation. Several sources told Variety that Paramount has put the project on ice for several reasons — its $21 million budget; the disappointing $13 million opening weekend for its “Rings” horror reboot; and the looming reversion of the rights to New Line.
“Friday the 13th” had been expected to start principal photography in the early spring with Breck Eisner directing in order to make the October release date. Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes was on board to produce with Andrew Form and Brad Fuller.
“Prisoners” scribe Aaron Guzikowski penned the reboot, which would have been the 13th film in the franchise, with the most recent bowing in 2009 from New Line and Warner Bros. As part of the deal that allowed Warner Bros. to come on as a co-producer on “Interstellar,” the studio traded the rights to “Friday the 13th” to Paramount, where Platinum Dunes holds a first-look deal.
The series launched in 1980 with Jason Vorhees as the unstoppable hockey mask-wearing killer who was drowned as a boy at Camp Crystal Lake. Paramount originally set a 2015 release date, then moved it backwards several times.
The state of California had awarded the production a $5.6 million tax credit on Aug. 2 as part of its expanded incentive program to keep production in California. But that credit required that production would start within 180 days and that period has now run out.
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Re: Friday The 13th (Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Against Producer)
Original 'Friday the 13th' Producer vs Writer Rights War Could Dismantle the Franchise
Imagine this Friday the 13th horror story: The franchise is ripped apart. In the United States, new films in the canon are made but without the "Jason" character. Outside the country, other Friday the 13th sequels come — these with "Jason" — but are banned domestically. If that sounds odd, it's all possible thanks to the 1976 Copyright Act and what happens soon in a Connecticut federal court.
In the 1970s, the U.S. Congress amended copyright law by allowing authors or their heirs to terminate a grant of rights and reclaim ownership. Victor Miller, the screenwriter of the original Friday the 13th, is looking to do exactly that. But in a bid to reclaim rights as soon as next year, he's facing contentions from the 1980 film's producer, Sean Cunningham, that Miller wrote Friday the 13th as a work-made-for-hire and has no ability to terminate.
Now, both sides have filed summary judgment motions, and a federal judge is set to make a huge decision for the entertainment industry. Those in the movie business haven't dealt with termination rights issues to the same extent as the music industry, but the reckoning is coming. And recent court papers filed by each side in this Friday the 13th battle illustrate the stakes and also hint how the dispute could provoke some union action.
Horror, Inc. and Manny Company, a successor to the company that originally produced Friday the 13th, say in court papers filed Friday that it was Cunningham who conceived of the idea to do a Halloween-type film, that it was he who hired the team, including Miller, to develop the idea, that it was he who obtained financing and that it was he who controlled all creative decisions.
Bonnie Eskenazi, representing the producers, writes that Miller was and still is a member of the Writers Guild of America, and that when the author scripted Friday the 13th, he did so pursuant to a standard form WGA employment agreement.
"This fact is critical because the WGA negotiates with employers on behalf of its members to set the minimum terms and conditions of employment, which are reflected in its collective bargaining agreement," writes Eskenazi. "WGA members, like Miller, do not have the right to freely negotiate the minimum terms and conditions of their employment. Rather, Miller’s WGA employment agreement incorporates and is subject to the terms of the WGA’s collective bargaining agreement, which provides substantial employee benefits for Miller, such as a minimum guaranteed salary, payment of residuals, sequel payments, and pension and health benefits—all of which Miller received over the past thirty-eight years, and continues to receive to this day."
"Now, nearly 40 years later, Miller seeks to dissociate himself from the same employee status by which he has collected hundreds of thousands of dollars of union negotiated employee benefits for his work on the Film," continues the summary judgment motion. "Miller pretends that he was not an employee hired pursuant to a WGA employment agreement after all and now seeks to reap statutory copyright termination rights ascribed only to original owners and grantors of copyright — rights which Miller’s union employment agreement and the undisputed facts show he does not have."
Under copyright law, if a work is made in the scope of employment, it's the employer who is considered the statutory author. That's why the producers are touting how Friday the 13th was Cunningham's vision. Speaking to the relationship between Cunningham and Miller, summary judgment papers from the producers' camp say that Miller would submit drafts of his writings, and Cunningham would make changes and modifications and mark up drafts. Miller would take notes and incorporate changes. The discussions allegedly included direction about film elements, plots, scenes and characters. Cunningham says he explained to Miller key elements of successful horror films.
Even if the court finds that Miller's termination notices are valid, Eskenazi argues that "Miller’s purported rights could only extend to those elements of the screenplays that he actually created. Here, it is undisputed that Miller did not create either the title 'Friday the 13th' or the 'Jason' character as a living adult monster who is the villainous killer in all of the eleven (11) sequels. Instead, Cunningham created the title 'Friday the 13th' and Miller created a 'Jason' character that died as a young boy due to the negligence of his camp counselors. Accordingly, Miller cannot claim any right to the title 'Friday the 13th,' or the ongoing 'Jason' character, or Jason’s iconic look of a man in a hockey mask carrying a machete."
Marc Toberoff, the attorney representing Miller, of course presents a different perspective. He submits that producers provided the writer with no employee benefits whatsoever — no health insurance, no paid vacation, no pension and so forth.
As for the WGA, he argues, "The Court need not enter this thicket, however, because the WGA’s records demonstrate that no one made any contributions to the WGA’s pension and health funds. The failure of Manny to provide Miller with any conventional employment benefits weighs heavily against 'employee' status."
As for his version of the working relationship, Miller says he wrote a 15-page treatment (called "The Long Knight at Camp Blood") and screenplay "on spec" at his home without daily supervision. Miller contends he worked as a freelancer over the course of two months and that it was up to him when and for how long he worked. The writer says he was paid $5,569 upon delivery of a first draft and $3,713 upon delivery of a final draft screenplay. He says that revisions with the exception of a new ending were "minor." The film was released by Paramount Pictures.
"Cunningham, his successors reaped tens of millions from the Film and resulting film franchise; his good friend Miller, who had thrown in his lot in authoring the Film, received relatively minor sums," writes Toberoff, noting that nowhere in the old agreement was there word of a "work made for hire."
The producers are also arguing that the statute of limitations bars Miller's claim for ownership. They assert that Miller knew in 1979 that Cunningham asserted ownership and that the writer thus had only three years to raise a claim.
Meanwhile, Toberoff looks to have a court honor the termination provisions of copyright code, but also speaks about what it will mean.
"Whereas Miller will thereby recover the U.S. copyright to his original film treatment and screenplay this does not prevent the continued exploitation by Plaintiffs or their licensees of prior derivative works, including the 1980 film and its many sequels; it solely relates to new derivative works after the effective 2018 termination date," writes the attorney. "Furthermore, as the U.S. Copyright Act has no extra-territorial application, the foreign rights to Miller’s screenplay remain with Plaintiffs or their licensees."
Thus, the possibility that Friday the 13th rights could be split.
As for the potential that Miller could walk away with certain domestic rights that don't include the character of "Jason," his attorney points to the fact that Miller got sole screenwriting credit and that any co-authorship claim is "unsupported" and would likewise be barred by the statute of limitations. Nevertheless, the judge is free to wield a machete as he wishes in accordance with the law.
Re: Friday The 13th (Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Against Producer)
That's interesting. Wonder how it will pan out.
I bet the writer of that article had that last line penned before anything else.
I bet the writer of that article had that last line penned before anything else.
Rusty- Posts : 3861
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Re: Friday The 13th (Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Against Producer)
'Friday the 13th' Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Against Producer
In a big decision that will bolster the prospects of authors who hope to recapture rights from producers, Friday the 13th screenwriter Victor Miller has prevailed in a legal battle over the franchise.
Producers of the cult 1980 horror film including companies associated with Sean Cunningham filed suit more than a year ago after Miller aimed to take advantage of a provision of copyright law that allows authors to terminate a grant of rights and reclaim ownership 35 years after publishing. The producers alleged that Miller wrote Friday the 13th as a work-made-for-hire after Cunningham came up with an idea to capitalize on the success of the then-recently released horror film Halloween. They asserted that his termination notice was ineffective.
"Nearly 40 years ago, a screenplay was written about Camp Crystal Lake," opens a 62-page summary judgment opinion from U.S. District Court Judge Stefan Underhill. "The film created from the screenplay went on to significant commercial success. Lurking below that peaceful surface, however, was the Copyright Act’s termination right, waiting for just the right moment, when it would emerge and wreak havoc on the rights to the screenplay."
Miller disputed his screenplay was a work-made-for-hire, which under copyright law would mean that the producers authored the work and it wasn't eligible for termination. His attorney Marc Toberoff argued that while the screenplay was clearly commissioned as part of a motion picture, there never was any writing instrument as required by law spelling out the screenplay was a work-made-for-hire.
The producers responded that not only did Cunningham conceive the idea, but he hired the team, obtained financing, controlled all creative decisions, and importantly, that Miller was a member of the Writers Guild of America, which used a standard form agreement that made clear Miller was an employee.
U.S. District Court Judge Stefan Underhill has now granted summary judgment in favor of Miller and against the producers.
"I hold that Miller did not prepare the screenplay as a work for hire and that Miller’s Second Termination Notice validly terminated Horror’s rights to the copyright in the screenplay to Friday the 13th," writes the judge.
Specifically, Underhill determines the screenplay wasn’t a work for hire, not prepared within scope of employment, and that labor law doesn’t require holding that screenwriter was an employee. Instead, he's an independent contractor.
"In sum, although Cunningham possessed ultimate approval authority over Miller’s output, that fact is consistent with a hiring party’s role in both independent contractor and employment relationships," states the opinion. "The simple fact that Cunningham provided direction or supervision is also not dispositive. Although the record points to frequent interaction between Cunningham and Miller, there is little in the record to suggest that such interactions frequently consisted of Cunningham exercising close control over Miller’s work, and there is nothing in the record that suggests Cunningham controlled the details of Miller’s creative expression or otherwise directed the performance of Miller’s daily activities. Despite a lack of detailed control over Miller’s expression or confining control over Miller’s work habits, however, Cunningham’s discussions with Miller and approval authority did broadly affect the aesthetic content of the screenplay."
The decision has been pending for almost a year now, and the uncertainty over ownership has reportedly interfered with new sequels being made as well as derivative works like video games.
Miller's victory also holds the prospect that he will control rights inside the United States while producers control rights outside the domestic market where termination recapture isn't applied.
If no settlement occurs and any appeal is unsuccessful, there could be future legal battles over trademarks as well as the character of "Jason." According to the producers, Miller created a "Jason" character who died as a young boy while it was sequels that presented "Jason" as a living adult monster.
Underhill rules that Miller has successfully recaptures all the elements of his screenplay except for once scene involving a motorcycle police officer. The judge also writes, "I also decline to analyze the extent to which Miller can claim copyright in the monstrous 'Jason' figure present in sequels to the original film. Horror may very well be able to argue that the Jason character present in later films is distinct from the Jason character briefly present in the first film, and Horror or other participants may be able to stake a claim to have added sufficient independently copyrightable material to Jason in the sequels to hold independent copyright in the adult Jason character. That question is not properly before the court in this case, however."
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