Original Friday the 13th writer reclaims rights to franchise after lawsuit victory

Victor Miller, the screenwriter for the now-classic slasher film Friday the 13th, released in 1980. On Thursday, Sept 30, 2021, Miller scored an important legal victory in a copyright termination battle.

The second US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Miller will reclaim the domestic rights to the Friday the 13th franchise.

Miller leveraged a portion of the copyright law that allows writers to reclaim the rights of what they have created once a statutory period of time has passed.

Friday the 13th‘s producer, Sean Cunningham, argued against Miller’s point, stating that the screenplay was made as a work for hire and thus was ineligible for copyright termination.

However, in September 2018, it has been ruled to not be a work for hire by a federal judge.

While Cunningham’s company might try for a rehearing, and perhaps even a petition to the Supreme Court, the producer still retains foreign rights and the intellectual property derived from the Friday the 13th sequels, possibly including the iconic monstrous Jason Voorhees sporting a hockey mask.

Still, this is an important victory for screenwriters, who have commonly lost ownership and power over their creations after handing them over to production companies.

Speaking of Friday the 13th, Jason is back in a new deluxe collection set of the long-running slasher series. This set by Scream Factory enshrines the most successful horror series in cinema history, across a whopping 16-disc collection.

The collection comes packed in new custom artwork and accompanying booklet, along with 16 Blu-ray discs. One thing to note though, that only the first four movies have new 4K scanned versions.

But for roughly US$10(S$13) per film, this makes for the ultimate Jason Voorhees collectible. Now if only it included his hockey mask too…

The collection is available on Amazon now for US$129.99.