The Friday the 13th lawsuit may be settled within a month

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The court battle over the rights to the original FRIDAY THE 13TH has been a long one, and it hasn't been without its casualties – the developers of the recent Friday the 13th: The Game had to stop adding new content into the game because of the lawsuit. Not even a ruling brought an end to this ordeal. When a judge decided that the copyright for the first F13 should be given to screenwriter Victor Miller in the United States, director/producer Sean S. Cunningham filed an appeal… 

But lately things have been looking more hopeful. Cunningham withdrew his appeal, the deadline for refiling is coming up fast, and in an interview Miller indicated that lawyers were negotiating a settlement between himself and Cunningham's company Horror Inc. 

It's a lucky break for fans that one actor who was in a FRIDAY THE 13TH movie, Larry Zerner, who played Shelly in FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III, went on to become an entertainment lawyer, and he has been interpreting the situation for us throughout the lawsuit process. In an interview that was posted by NWF Daily News on March 21st, Zerner said there's a good chance this will all be wrapped up by the end of April.

Here's the section of the interview that deals with the lawsuit: 

In June 2016 Victor Miller filed paperwork to regain the rights to the screenplay he wrote for the original “Friday the 13th” film. Sean Cunningham countered by filing a lawsuit against Miller. Where are we at with the lawsuit now?

ZERNER: In this case, the judge did not rule on the motion until September of 2018, and they ruled in Victor’s favor. They said Victor had the right to terminate. That meant in June of 2018 the termination went into effect. Under the law, that means he gets the rights back to his screenplay in the first movie only. He doesn’t own any of the other movies or characters that only appeared in those other movies. And it only applies in the United States, the termination. So Sean still owns the rights to the first movie outside of the United States.

Victor won, Sean filed an appeal of the case and then a few weeks ago he withdrew the appeal, and my sources told me that was because of some technical thing (and he may soon refile), but it may be because they’re talking a settlement and they needed to buy some time.

I hear they’re talking settlement. They have, I think, another (two) weeks. Either he’s going to refile the appeal or they’re going to say they settled. I think Sean’s chances on appeal are small and I think he knows that. And an appeal is going to take another two years, maybe three. And there’s a lot of money at stake because you want to get the movies out. You’re not doing anything, nobody’s making money, so there’s an incentive to settle and not wait.

I think there’s a better than 50/50 chance that we’ll see a settlement in the next 30 days.

That's great to hear, and keep in mind that this interview was conducted at least a week ago, so that moves everything forward a bit. The deadline for refiling the appeal would now be a week away, and hopefully there won't be a refiling. Hopefully the next news we hear about all this will be that a settlement has been reached and new FRIDAY THE 13TH projects can finally move forward.