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    Victor Miller Wins ‘Friday The 13th’ Lawsuit To Reclaim Domestic Rights

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    friday the 13th

    The Friday the 13th franchise has been stuck in so much legal turmoil over the last few years, it’s definitely been hard to keep track. As it turns out, however, things are starting to look up for the long-running horror franchise. As fans might recall, original Friday the 13th screenwriter Victor Miller and its director Sean Cunningham have been engaged in a legal battle over the first film’s rights. It was initially ruled in 2018 that Victor Miller would be allowed to reclaim ownership to the first film’s rights due to copyright law.

    Sean Cunningham argued that Miller only wrote the screenplay as “work-for-hire”, and quickly appealed to have the decision reversed. And such was the last we heard, until now. It’s just been announced that Victor Miller has once again won the domestic rights to the original Friday the 13th film.

    As explained by Erig Gardner of The Hollywood Reporter via Twitter:

    “Barring any reversal before a fuller panel at the 2nd Circuit or Supreme Court, Victor Miller will reclaim the domestic rights to the franchise. A big win for attorney Marc Toberoff as he heads into an even bigger fight against Disney over Marvel characters.”

    This is exciting news for fans of the Friday the 13th franchise. As stated above, it’s been in legal turmoil for what seems like ages now. It ruined any plans for a future film from happening, and it also killed the plans to expand Friday the 13th: The Game. Of course, it’ll probably still take quite some time and more legal debacles to continue getting the franchise rights straightened out. But hopefully once that happens, we can once again expect a new Friday the 13th film with Jason Voorhees to hit the big screen.

    Until then, we’ll just have to keep watching the original twelve movies and enjoy the tie-in content that’s come with them over the decades.