The horror film Jeepers Creepers: Reborn surprised everyone with its abrupt announcement. The film had been secretly shot during the pandemic, and furthermore, two additional sequels were announced alongside it. However, it turns out that legal problems might be holding the film back. Jeepers Creepers: Reborn is currently facing a major lawsuit.
The film, which was co-produced by Infinity Films, was shot without the involvement of Myriad Pictures. In fact, they were completely unaware that the film was in production at all. Myriad Pictures co-produced both Jeepers Creepers 2 and Jeepers Creepers 3, and despite allegedly working with Infinity Films on Jeepers Creepers 4 in 2018 and 2019, they were left out the film’s actual production. And, to make matters worse, the film’s distribution was handed over to Screen Media without agreement from Myriad Pictures.
Now, as revealed in the following legal document via CriticalOverlord on Twitter, Myriad Pictures has sued Infinity Films.
“This case involves the alleged breach of a right of first negotiation and last refusal for worldwide distribution rights to subsequent productions of the horror movie franchise, Jeepers Creepers. Cross-Defendant Myriad Pictures, Inc. (“Cross-Defendant”‘ or “Plaintiff”) alleges in the Complaint having a contractual right of first negotiation and last refusal for worldwide distribution rights to subsequent productions. Cross-Defendant further alleges that defendants produced and filmed Jeepers Creepers IV without Cross-Defendant’s knowledge or involvement, even though Cross Defendant had been working with defendants to develop the sequels throughout 2018 and 2019. Once the film was shot, defendants purported to extend to Cross-Defendant a right of “last negotiation” which was illusory because defendants had already granted distribution rights to Cross-Defendant’s competitor Screen Media.”
While Jeepers Creepers: Reborn was initially announced with plenty of confidence, it seems the future is now unclear. While many fans were looking forward to Jeepers Creepers: Reborn and the promise of a new trilogy, it seems all of that now depends on the outcome of this lawsuit. As such, fans can stay tuned to ScreenGeek for more updates as we have them.