This TOP GUN Lawsuit Just Keeps Going …

Tom Cruise plays Capt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick from Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.

By India McCarty

Paramount has countersued the cousin of a TOP GUN: MAVERICK writer who claims he co-wrote the movie’s script. 

“With these Counterclaims, PPC [Paramount Pictures Corporation] sets the record straight about who is the true aggrieved party in its dispute with Shaun Gray,” the studio stated in its countersuit. 

Paramount also claimed Gray, the cousin and occasional assistant to MAVERICK writer Eric Warren Singer, “saw an opportunity to shake down PPC, but in the process, he has effectively admitted to infringing PPC’s copyright in TOP GUN and defrauding PPC as to his purported authorial role.”

They claim Gray “lacked authorization to use PPC’s copyrighted material from TOP GUN or the MAVERICK Materials when he allegedly wrote the ‘Gray Scenes’ and accordingly infringed PPC’s exclusive right to prepare derivative works of TOP GUN and the MAVERICK Materials.”

 

Gray’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, made a statement, saying Paramount’s counterclaims are “designed to scare and intimidate” the writer “from asserting his authorial rights.”

“After Paramount likely made a secret deal with Eric Singer, they try to blame Gray for Singer’s alleged deception, when Gray was victimized by it,” he said. “There is one saving grace though, Paramount’s counterclaims serve as a ringing admission that indeed Shaun Gray authored most of the major character-defining action scenes appearing in TOP GUN: MAVERICK.”

Related: TOP GUN: MAVERICK Gets Hit With Copyright Infringement Lawsuit

Gray claims he wrote 15 key scenes in the blockbuster sequel, arguing that he is a co-writer on the screenplay, as he and Paramount never made a work-for-hire deal. However, Paramount called his claims a “delusion.”

“Gray lacked decisionmaking authority over the works to which he lays claim; he received no billing on them, let alone as a joint author; and he had no agreements with third parties suggesting his authorship,” Molly Lens, a lawyer for Paramount, wrote in a letter asking a judge to dismiss the suit. 

However, complicating matters, an interview with MAVERICK military advisor Captain JJ “Yank” Cummings mentioned Gray by name while speaking about the writing process. 

The lawsuit has not been fully dismissed, but U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff did toss out Gray’s desire for a court order that stated he was a joint author on the screenplay. Gray still has the opportunity to pursue damages for copyright infringement. 

Paramount’s countersuit is the studio’s latest move to dismiss Gray’s claims, but it remains to be seen if the alleged writer will get the screenplay credit he is seeking. 

Read Next: Paramount Prevails in TOP GUN: MAVERICK Copyright Lawsuit

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