Disney has found itself in a bit of legal trouble over the rights to the classic Predator film series that threatens to take away their claim to the whole franchise. The screenwriters of the original Predator film, Jim and John Thomas, have filed a lawsuit against the company in an attempt to recapture rights to the franchise, while Disney itself is now countering their suit in order to retain those rights.
This isn't the first classic franchise to suddenly face challenges from the original writers. Not too long ago, there was an extended battle over the rights to Friday the 13th that ended up disrupting several ongoing projects in the franchise. As it turns out, copyright includes a specific clause that allows rights transfers to be canceled after a certain period of time, usually around 35 years. The original writers are attempting to use this clause to reclaim the rights to Predator, and other legal battles have begun to spring up over various classic films from the '80s.
The suit comes at an awkward time for Disney, which is reportedly attempting to put together a reboot of Predator with 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg. According to the complaint from Jim and John Thomas, the rights expire on April 17th, 2021, claiming that they served a termination notice to Disney back in 2016 with no objections from the company.
According to filings, Disney did not officially object to the termination notice until January 2021, when the company claimed that the termination was 'untimely' and that the rights qualified for a delayed termination window as specified by 17 U.S.C. § 203(a)(3). The brothers claim that they then proposed some later termination dates, but none of them were satisfactory to Disney, leading to the situation where both sides are suing for the rights.
In their response, Disney's filing claims that while the Thomas brothers have the right to file for reclamation, their notices fail to meet the requirements of the law, making their claims invalid. Disney also claims that the termination is premature, as the company continues to make use of the IP and is still developing films in the Predator franchise.
As with most legal filings, there is a lot of gray area and room for interpretation, and many of the details are likely yet to come out. Hopefully, as the suit reaches a courtroom, a fair verdict is made that properly gives the rights to whoever is legally entitled to them.
Predator is now available on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter