As regulatory approval of Paramount‘s sale to Skydance looms, the still Shari Redstone-owned studio now finds itself in a family dogfight over who wrote what on blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick.
Filed last night in federal court in New York, a copyright infringement suit from the cousin of the Oscar nominated Eric Warren Singer claims plaintiff Shaun Gray “wrote key scenes for the screenplay that became the Film’s central edge-of-your-seat dramatic action sequences that made it a smash hit. The complaint is fueled to the hilt with exhibits that place Gray’s alleged work next to what showed up in the script and on-screen of the 2022 Tom Cruise flick, With a bevy of file creation timelines too, the Marc Toberoff represented Gray wants a court declaration for a credit on Marverick as well as some of the nearly $1.5 billion in box office the Joseph Kosinski helmed movie made worldwide.
Having already seen a previous Toberoff-led suit over Maverick’s origins dismissed last year, Paramount wasted no time Monday taking aim at this latest addition to the court docket.” 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 studio spokesperson. “We are confident that a court will reject this claim as well.”
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A former assistant to his American Hustle scribe relative Singer for many years, self-described “talent screenwriter” Gray insists he was not a work-for-hire addition to Marverick.
What the jury seeking complaint does say is that Gray was “manipulated and exploited by Hollywood power players, and demands accountability from Defendants that profited prodigiously by misappropriating Gray’s creative work.” Holding credits for working as a writer’s assistant for his cousin on 2009’s The International, and as an uncredited writer’s consultant on 2017’s Only The Brave, that Kosinski directed and Singer co-wrote, Gray has mainly held digital artist jobs in the industry. The notable exception being his stint as a staff writer on AppleTV’s short lived Shantaram.
Now, Top Gun sequel lawsuits aside, the often relentless Toberoff launched his own out of court salvos against Paramount today.
“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,” the lawyer told Deadline Monday.
This is all against the backdrop of not only Paramount’s anticipated merger with Skydance, but the release of the apparently last Mission Impossible film for Cruise next month and a Top Gun 3 movie in development. Maverick co-writer Ehren Kruger is working on a draft for the latter.
Officially, the Academy Award nominated screenplay for Top Gun: Maverick lists Singer, Kruger, and long time Cruise creative partner and Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie as the writers based on a story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks
The post Paramount Slammed For Trying To “Scapegoat” ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Writer’s Cousin & Infringement Action; Studio Disses “Completely Without Merit” Screenplay Suit appeared first on Deadline.
