{"id":83578,"date":"2025-08-15T01:33:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T01:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/83578\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T01:33:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T01:33:08","slug":"paramount-returns-fire-in-top-gun-maverick-script-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/83578\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount Returns Fire In ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Script Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJust more than 24 hours ago, newly minted Paramount<\/a> CEO David Ellison and his top flight team was talking up what a top priority a Top Gun<\/a> 3 is<\/a> for their regime. Well, the sequel may be getting ready for take-off, but there\u2019s a new counterclaim spin this week in the legal dogfight with self-declared co-screenwriter Shaun Gray over the Oscar-nominated script for the 2022 blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick<\/a>, which has grossed $1.5 billion and counting.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWith these Counterclaims, PPC sets the record straight about who is the true aggrieved party in its dispute with Shaun Gray,\u201d Paramount Pictures Corporation proclaims in its defendant\u2019s answer and counterclaims filing<\/a> of August 13 in New York federal court. The counterclaims come two weeks after Judge Jed S. Rakoff, who is also overseeing the fraud and money-laundering case against Carl Rinsch for apparently ripping off Netflix for $11 million and more,<\/a> delivered a mixed verdict <\/a>that handed Paramount a win in getting most of Gray\u2019s April-filed copyright infringement case <\/a>tossed out except for the copyright infringement part.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn that context, and with a Tom Cruise<\/a>-starring franchise at possible risk (one of Hollywood\u2019s true trigger points), clearly this is no mere airshow for Paramount.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn 2022, PPC released its hit film Top Gun: Maverick \u2014 the sequel to its 1986 blockbuster Top Gun \u2014 to widespread critical acclaim and box-office success,\u201d the counterclaim <\/a>alleging fraud and seeking widespread damages says. \u201cWith Maverick\u2019s success, Plaintiff and Counterclaim-Defendant Shaun Gray saw an opportunity to shake down PPC, but in the process, he has effectively admitted to infringing PPC\u2019s copyright in Top Gun and defrauding PPC as to his purported authorial role.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHolding some legit credits of his own, Gray, the cousin and sometimes assistant to credited Maverick co-scribe Eric Warren Singer, alleged in his initial a suit that he was in the jump seat on the script for Maverick with his cousin and director Joseph Kosinski.<\/p>\n

\n\tKeeping to himself for several years, Gray says in his April filing that 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 Adding to the fog of war, so to speak, Maverick\u00a0military advisor Captain JJ \u201cYank\u201d Cummings has spoken publicly about Gray\u2019s contribution in pressure-cooker hotel writing sessions for the flick.<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, Paramount \u2014 then still ruled by Shari Redstone, who was waiting for approvals on her $8 billion sale to Ellison\u2019s Skydance \u2014 called the claims especially crapola and tried to get them dismissed.<\/p>\n

\n\tNow, Paramount and its O\u2019Melveny & Myers lawyers have taken a slightly novel and entrapping approach to handling Gray: If you are telling the truth, you are in whirlwind of trouble.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe August 13 filing postulates: \u201cIf, as Gray contends, he did not prepare the \u2018Gray Scenes\u2019 subject to Singer\u2019s contract with PPC, or otherwise license the \u2018Gray Scenes\u2019 for PPC\u2019s use in Maverick (which might entail a reciprocal implied license to Gray), then Gray lacked authorization to use PPC\u2019s copyrighted material from Top Gun or the Maverick Materials when he allegedly wrote the \u2018Gray Scenes\u2019 and accordingly infringed PPC\u2019s exclusive right to prepare derivative works of Top Gun and the Maverick Materials.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tWith a sideshow of communication with the WGA over the Maverick script also a part of this case, Gray\u2019s own lawyer Marc Toberoff<\/a> did not respond to Deadline\u2019s request for comment on this latest turn of events.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs they say in Maverick, \u201cIt\u2019s not the plane, it\u2019s the pilot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just more than 24 hours ago, newly minted Paramount CEO David Ellison and his top flight team was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[58177,88,58178,206,4208,4520,58179,56811,20791],"class_list":{"0":"post-83578","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-david-ellision","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-marc-toberoff","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-paramount","13":"tag-tom-cruise","14":"tag-top-gun","15":"tag-top-gun-3","16":"tag-top-gun-maverick"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83578","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=83578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}