[imagesource: Paramount Pictures]

Top Gun: Maverick‘s Paramount Pictures is having to strap in for major turbulence as a legal fight is headed its way.

The high-flying studio is being accused of copyright infringement by the Israeli-based widow and son of the author of the 1983 article that inspired the original 1986 movie.

Those involved might need a very specific Tom Cruise boot camp for this one.

Ehud Yonay wrote ‘Top Guns’ in a May 1983 edition of California magazine, which told the story of the pilots and programme “located in a second-floor cubby of offices at the east end of Hangar One at Miramar”.

The article was immediately optioned by Paramount, and Yonay was cited in the credits of the first Top Gun.

But by the time Top Gun: Maverick came along, the rights to the article had reverted back to the Yonays in January 2020.

Yonay’s family, Shosh Yonay and Yuval Yonay, are now fighting the studio for damages, reported Deadline:

“Despite the 2022 Sequel clearly having derived from the Story, Paramount consciously failed to secure a new license of film and ancillary rights in the copyrighted Story following the Yonays’ recovery of their U.S. copyright on January 24, 2020,” reads the three-claim, jury trial-demanding civil complaint.

“The Yonays contend and Paramount denies that the 2022 Sequel does not qualify for the “prior derivative works exception” under 17 U.S.C. because it was not completed until long after January 24, 2020.”

The Yonay family filed the copyright suit recently in the California federal court, and are asking for an unspecified but large amount from the studio.

Even more unfortunate is that they’ve also requested “an injunction to stop screenings and distribution of the May 27-released sequel, as well as any more movies in the franchise”.

Calling Top Gun: Maverick “derivative,” the Marc Toberoff- and Alex Kozinski-represented Yonays allege that Paramount is “thumbing its nose at the statute” that allows the termination of rights after 35 years.

Just FYI, Marc Toberoff, the founder of Toberoff & Associates, has taken on other big-budget studios like Warner Bros and Marvel/Disney on behalf of original storytellers and their heirs.

Paramount has hit back, adamant that those claims are “without merit” and communicating that they will defend themselves “vigorously”.

It looks like there’s a new meaning to that line Tom Cruise says in the major blockbuster: “This is your captain speaking. Today’s exercise is dogfighting.”

Yep, let the legal dogfight begin.

[source:deadline]