{"id":398007,"date":"2026-01-09T22:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T22:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/398007\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T22:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T22:06:10","slug":"top-gun-maverick-script-suit-in-tailspin-for-writer-after-latest-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/398007\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Top Gun Maverick’ Script Suit In Tailspin For Writer After Latest Ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAs America\u2019s enemies learned the hard way on the big screen in the Top Gun<\/a> flicks, it\u2019s really not a smart move to mess with Pete \u201cMaverick\u201d Mitchell or his franchise. Now, for the second time in a week,<\/a> a federal judge has grounded a lawsuit against Top Gun: Maverick<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn fact, not only has U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff decided Shaun Gray\u2019s copyright claims of contributions to the 2022 blockbuster\u2019s script are DOA, but that Paramount<\/a>\u2018s August filed counterclaims <\/a>can push it to Mach 10. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cParamount moves for summary judgment on Gray\u2019s remaining claim of copyright infringement, arguing that Gray\u2019s infringement claim must be dismissed for various reasons, one of which is that Gray\u2019s own copyright is invalid,\u201d Judge Rakoff writes today with some briskness in his opinion and order.<\/a> \u201cBecause the Court agrees with that argument, it need not address Paramount\u2019s other arguments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHaving some credits of his own, Gray, the cousin and sometimes assistant to credited\u00a0Maverick\u00a0co-scribe Eric Warren Singer, alleged in his since slimmed down action <\/a>that he worked on the script for\u00a0Maverick\u00a0with his cousin and the film\u2019s director Joseph Kosinski<\/a>. Pumped up by public comments on his contributions by Maverick\u00a0military advisor Captain JJ \u201cYank\u201d Cummings, Gray\u2019s initial April 2025 suit <\/a>insists he \u201cwrote key scenes for the screenplay that became the Film\u2019s central edge-of-your-seat dramatic action sequences that made it a smash hit.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tParamount has disagreed, and noted it had no way of knowing any of this in part because by Gray\u2019s own admission he never told anyone that he was supposedly pounding on the keys for the flyboy flick \u2013 and Judge Rakoff, who just oversaw the feds\u2019 successful fraud and money-laundering case against Carl Rinsch for apparently ripping off Netflix for $11 million and more,<\/a> agreed. \u201cAs previously noted, the original film, Top Gun, was fully copyrighted by Paramount, and it is self-evident that the Gray Scenes are materially based on the Top Gun universe, including characters, settings, and plot devices, as one would expect of such a sequel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe adds: \u201cAs for Paramount\u2019s fraud counterclaim, Paramount alleges that Gray devalued Paramount\u2019s intellectual property by intentionally concealing from Paramount that he was writing scenes and making contributions to Singer\u2019s draft of the Top Gun: Maverick screenplay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFor the foregoing reasons, the Court grants Paramount\u2019s motion for summary judgment and denies Gray\u2019s motion for summary judgment,\u201d the judge concludes in the 19-page missive. \u201cSpecifically, Gray\u2019s claim for copyright infringement is dismissed, and Paramount\u2019s counterclaims of copyright infringement and fraud are preserved for trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAll of which likely brought a much welcomed skip in C-suiter\u2019s steps today down at the Melrose lot (cause, you know that WBD thing is still grinding on\u2026<\/a>). \u201cWe are pleased with the Court\u2019s decision to dismiss Gray\u2019s claims and allow Paramount\u2019s counterclaims to move forward,\u201d a Paramount spokesperson told Deadline Friday after the NYC-based Rakoff issued his summary judgement opinion and order. <\/p>\n

\n\tGray\u2019s attorney Marc Taboroff did not respond to Deadline\u2019s request for comment on Friday\u2019s docket. Taboroff, long a copyright warrior to various degrees of success against the studios, is also the lawyer in the as-of-now unsuccessful copyright infringement attempt by the widow and son of Ehud Yonay, who penned \u201cTop Guns\u201d from the now-defunct\u00a0California\u00a0magazine\u2019s May 1983 issue that inspired the 1986 hit movie. An Appeals Court panel shot that one down a week ago after the estate\u2019s already lower court rejected notion that their termination rights had been violated and that Paramount, Cruise and producers like\u00a0Jerry Bruckheimer<\/a>\u00a0and now Para kingpin David Ellison<\/a> had no standing to make the Top Gun sequel or the planned Top Gun 3.<\/p>\n

\n\tNow, it\u2019s all primed for takeoff. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As America\u2019s enemies learned the hard way on the big screen in the Top Gun flicks, it\u2019s really…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[18205,88,67881,206,4208,4520,58179,20791,20007],"class_list":["post-398007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-david-ellison","tag-entertainment","tag-joseph-kosinski","tag-movies","tag-paramount","tag-tom-cruise","tag-top-gun","tag-top-gun-maverick","tag-wbd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}