The Battle of Friday the 13th
In August of 2016, a conflict between the original screenwriter, Victor Miller, and director, Sean S. Cunningham began over Friday the 13th. Miller filed a formal notice of termination to reclaim the US rights to his 1979 screenplay. He filed it using a provision in the Copyright Act of 1976 that allows authors to terminate copyright transfers 35 years after the work was created. In response, the franchiseβs rights holders, Horror Inc. and Sean S. Cunningham, filed a lawsuit against Miller to invalidate his copyright termination by arguing that he wrote the script as a work-for-hire employee. For the next 5 years, Friday the 13th was held in a legal limbo, with no new media being made, and the famously popular Friday the 13th: The Game having all new updates put on hold. In September of 2021 the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in Miller’s favor, determining that he worked as an independent contractor, successfully returning the rights to the script back to him. This outcome fully split the legal rights to the franchise, Miller owning the rights to the first film, Pamala Voorhees and child Jason, while Cunningham owning the global distribution rights, and the rights to the adult, hockey mask wearing Jason we all know and love. This split caused the pause of the franchise to continue even further, and sadly leading to the FULL shutdown of the Friday the 13th game. Now, both Miller and Cunningham realized that this wasn’t good for business, the key stakeholders formed a partnership called Jason UN1V3RSE, allowing Jason media to finally be made again. Jason Voorhees has been appearing in many videogames like Dead by Daylight. Additionally, a new Crystal Lake show is set to release this October. Finally, our favorite hockey mask wearing slasher is back.