By India McCarty
Paramount has been sued by the cousin of a TOP GUN: MAVERICK writer, who claims he co-wrote the blockbuster movie’s script.
“This action seeks justice for [Shaun] Gray, a talented screenwriter, manipulated and exploited by Hollywood power players, and demands accountability from Defendants that profited prodigiously by misappropriating Gray’s creative work,” a portion of his suit reads.
Gray, who primarily works as a visual effects artist, alleges he worked on the TOP GUN: MAVERICK script for five months with his cousin, Eric Warren Singer, and director Joseph Kosinski.
He claims he wrote “key scenes,” including the opening scene of the movie, as well as a sequence where Tom Cruise’s character engages in a dogfight with one of his trainees, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The suit includes time-stamped files and emails that support his claims.
J.J. “Yank” Cummings, a former Navy fighter pilot who also worked as an adviser on the movie, confirmed Gray’s involvement in a 2022 interview with GQ.
“In the early days, it was me, Eric, and Shaun,” Cummings said. “We spent five days straight in a hotel room in San Diego going through the screenplay line by line. About a month later, Eric, Shaun, and I did five days in Eric’s Santa Monica office and Joe dropped in for the last two days to review our work. So yes, we logged a lot of time together.”
Gray is seeking a “screenplay by” credit on the movie, a cut of TOP GUN: MAVERICK’s profits and involvement in future marketing and promotional efforts going forward.
Related: TOP GUN: MAVERICK Gets Hit With Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
This is not the first legal battle TOP GUN: MAVERICK has been dragged into. In 2023, the heirs to the author of the 1983 story TOP GUN was based on accused Paramount of starting production on the sequel without renegotiating a new license. The plaintiff was represented by copyright termination expert Marc Toberoff, but the case was later dismissed.
“This lawsuit, like the one previously brought by Mr. Toberoff in an attempt to benefit off of the success of TOP GUN: MAVERICK, is completely without merit,” a Paramount spokesperson said in a statement, per Variety. “We are confident that a court will reject this claim as well.”
In an interview with Deadline, Toberoff said, “Paramount can deny, deflect and scapegoat all they want, but Exhibit 2 to the Complaint documents Shaun Gray’s very significant joint-authorship of the TOP GUN: MAVERICK screenplay with detailed citations to Gray’s time-stamped files and time-stamped emails conveying his scenes to Eric Singer and at times to the film’s director, Joseph Kosinski.
TOP GUN: MAVERICK broke major records at the box office in 2022 and is still pulling in money through streaming and VOD sales. It’s no surprise so many people are trying to claim a piece of the movie’s profits.
Read Next: Paramount Prevails in TOP GUN: MAVERICK Copyright Lawsuit
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