Warner Bros. files motion to dismiss Superman lawsuit threatening foreign release of the James Gunn movie

In January, Warner Bros. found itself at the center of a lawsuit that could potentially block James Gunn’s upcoming Superman movie from being released in foreign territories. Mark Peary, nephew of late Superman co-creator Joe Shuster, filed the lawsuit against Warner Bros. Discovery, DC Studios, and DC Comics, arguing they don’t have the rights to release Superman in many key territories outside the U.S.

As you might expect, Warner Bros. is fighting back. The studio has now filed a motion to dismiss, claiming that courts have already rejected Peary’s claims after his mother, Jean Peavy, signed away all rights after Schuster’s death in 1992. “Peary’s complaint fails on every ground,” said Warner Bros.’ attorney Daniel Petrocelli.

Marc Toberoff, the estate’s lawyer, has argued that although Schuster and Jerome Siegel signed away the rights to Superman in 1938 for a mere $130, “the copyright laws of countries with the British legal tradition—including Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia—contain provisions automatically terminating such assignments 25 years after an author’s death, vesting in the Shuster Estate the co-author’s undivided copyright interest in such countries.“

The suit continued, “Shuster died in 1992 and Siegel in 1996. By operation of law, Shuster’s foreign copyrights automatically reverted to his estate in 2017 in most of these territories (and in 2021 in Canada). Yet Defendants continue to exploit Superman across these jurisdictions without the Shuster Estate’s authorization—including in motion pictures, television series, and merchandise—in direct contravention of these countries’ copyright laws, which require the consent of all joint copyright owners to do so.“

Petrocelli responded that these claims aren’t enforceable in US courts and that the 1992 agreement with Jean Peavy covers “all rights,” including foreign rights. “There are no carve-outs in the controlling 1992 agreement for any foreign copyrights, much less for the copyrights in the 10 countries Peary now alleges in the Complaint,” Petrocelli wrote. Doesn’t sound like this battle is over quite yet.

Superman stars David Corenswet (Pearl) as Clark Kent and Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Ms. Maisel) as Lois Lane. The cast also includes Nathan Fillion (The Rookie) as Guy Gardner, a charismatic and slightly obnoxious member of the Green Lantern Corps; Isabela Merced (Dora and the Lost City of Gold) as Hawkgirl; Edi Gathegi (X-Men: First Class) as Mister Terrific; Anthony Carrigan (Barry) as Metamorpho; María Gabriela de Faría (Deadly Class) as The Engineer, a member of The Authority; Sara Sampaio (At Midnight) as Eve Teschmacher; Skyler Gisondo (The Righteous Gemstones) as Jimmy Olsen; Wendell Pierce (The Wire) as Perry White; Neva Howell (Logan Lucky) as Martha Kent; Pruitt Taylor-Vince (The Walking Dead) as Jonathan Kent; and Nicholas Hoult (The Great) as Lex Luthor. Superman is slated to hit theaters on July 11th.