The Friday the 13th lawsuit was a copyright fight between original screenwriter Victor Miller and producer Sean Cunningham’s companies over who owned the 1980 script that launched the franchise. Miller won at both the trial and appellate levels, reclaiming U.S. copyright to his screenplay in 2018 and having that victory affirmed by the Second Circuit in 2021. But because sequel elements and foreign rights stayed with Cunningham’s side, ownership of the franchise split in two, and the resulting gridlock kept Jason Voorhees off screens, out of games, and off store shelves for years.
How the Fight Started
In 1979, Cunningham formed a Connecticut limited partnership called the Manny Company to produce the first film. He hired Miller under a “Writer’s Flat Deal Contract” and paid him $9,282 in two lump sums. No taxes were withheld. Miller received no benefits. He wrote the script at home on his own typewriter under the working title “The Long Night at Camp Blood.”1Copyright.Nova.edu. Friday the 13th After that first film, Miller had no involvement with any sequel.2Collider. Friday the 13th Lawsuit Explained
The rights moved around. Manny assigned its interests to Georgetown Productions, an investment company led by Phil Scuderi. Georgetown registered the copyright and listed the screenplay as a “work made for hire.” A later company, Horror Inc., eventually acquired the full bundle of franchise rights from Georgetown.3UCLA Law. Horror Inc. v. Miller
In 2016, Miller filed a termination notice under Section 203 of the Copyright Act. That provision lets authors reclaim rights they sold or licensed away after 35 years. It has one major exception: works made for hire cannot be terminated. Horror Inc. and Manny sued Miller in federal court to block the termination, arguing the screenplay was exactly that, a work for hire created by an employee.1Copyright.Nova.edu. Friday the 13th
How the Courts Ruled
The 2018 District Court Decision
On September 28, 2018, U.S. District Court Judge Stefan Underhill ruled for Miller in Horror, Inc. v. Miller, 335 F. Supp. 3d 273 (D. Conn. 2018).4The Hollywood Reporter. Friday the 13th Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Over Producer Applying the thirteen-factor agency test from the Supreme Court’s decision in Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, the judge found nearly every factor pointed to Miller being an independent contractor. His contract said nothing about work for hire. He worked from home, used his own supplies, set his own hours, received no benefits, and had no taxes withheld. The producers had no right to assign him further projects.1Copyright.Nova.edu. Friday the 13th
The producers also argued that Miller’s Writers Guild of America membership and the WGA collective bargaining agreement created an employment relationship. Judge Underhill rejected that. The version of the WGA agreement in force at the time did not contain such language, and Miller’s contract did not incorporate it. A fallback claim that Cunningham and Scuderi were co-authors also failed; their contributions amounted to unprotectable ideas or stock genre elements, and the claim was time-barred by the Copyright Act’s three-year statute of limitations anyway.4The Hollywood Reporter. Friday the 13th Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Over Producer
The 2021 Second Circuit Affirmance
Horror Inc. appealed. On September 30, 2021, a two-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. Circuit Judge Susan Carney wrote the opinion, joined by Judge John M. Walker Jr. A third panel member, Judge Ralph K. Winter, died before the ruling issued.5Justia. Horror Inc. v. Miller, No. 18-3123
The core holding: “copyright law, not labor law, controls the ‘work for hire’ determination.” Carney wrote that even though labor law extends protections to guild-represented independent writers, “that labor law was determined to offer labor protections to independent writers does not have to reduce the protections provided to authors under the Copyright Act.”6The Hollywood Reporter. Friday the 13th Copyright Termination Appeal The panel also refused to treat WGA membership as a separate factor in the Reid analysis and agreed the balance of factors marked Miller as an independent contractor.5Justia. Horror Inc. v. Miller, No. 18-3123 With that, Miller’s 2016 termination stood and U.S. copyright in the original screenplay reverted to him.
What Miller Won, What Cunningham Kept
The win was real but bounded. Miller got back U.S. copyright to the 1980 screenplay and the characters he created in it, most notably Pamela Voorhees. Cunningham’s side retained nonexclusive foreign rights to the original film’s elements, plus everything developed in the sequels, including the adult, hockey-masked version of Jason.6The Hollywood Reporter. Friday the 13th Copyright Termination Appeal The district court had specifically declined to decide who owned the Jason character, noting Jason appeared only briefly in the original screenplay and that Horror Inc. or others “may be able to stake a claim to have added sufficient independently copyrightable material to Jason in the sequels to hold independent copyright in the adult Jason character.”4The Hollywood Reporter. Friday the 13th Screenwriter Wins Rights Battle Over Producer
That split produced the stalemate. Miller could authorize a remake of the first film’s story. Cunningham’s side controlled the version of Jason audiences actually recognize. Neither could put together a full franchise project without the other’s cooperation, and for years, neither did.
What the Lawsuit Broke
The most public casualty was Friday the 13th: The Game, an asymmetric multiplayer horror game developed by IllFonic and published by Gun Media. It began as a Kickstarter in October 2015 that raised over $823,000 from more than 12,000 backers,7Kickstarter. Friday the 13th: The Game and launched on May 26, 2017.8Hey Poor Player. Friday the 13th: The Game Review
Gun Media’s license came through Cunningham’s side. Once Miller’s termination notice put the copyright in dispute, new content became legally untenable. On June 11, 2018, Gun Media announced a permanent content freeze, saying additional material was “unfeasible now or in the future.”9Polygon. Friday the 13th Game Legal Case Everything planned was scrapped, including “Uber Jason,” the Grendel map, new playable Jasons and counselors, cosmetics, and play modes.10Kotaku. Friday the 13th Game Loses DLC Because of Legal Battle In July 2020, Gun Media confirmed it would not renegotiate the license regardless of how the film-rights dispute ended.11GameSpot. Friday the 13th: The Game Will Lose Dedicated Servers Dedicated servers went dark in November 2020, the game left digital storefronts on December 31, 2023, and its official servers shut down for good on December 31, 2024.12Delisted Games. Friday the 13th: The Game
The damage extended to physical products and other games. NECA had its license to develop new Friday the 13th action figures suspended in 2019; a set of NES-themed “Toony Terrors” figures was canceled outright, though some items already in the pipeline were allowed to proceed.13Dead Entertainment. Friday the 13th Lawsuit Puts a Hold on New NECA Products Jason was excluded from Mortal Kombat 11 despite appearing as downloadable content in Mortal Kombat X before the dispute escalated.14Certified Forgotten. Friday the 13th Lawsuit No new film followed the 2009 Paramount remake. Paramount had actually received the right to make a new entry from Warner Bros. as part of a deal tied to co-financing Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, but the rights chaos kept it from ever exercising that option.15The Wrap. Friday the 13th No New Movie Announcement Coming
Separately, in January 2021, Cunningham sued Paramount and Warner Bros. in Los Angeles Superior Court over profit participation from the 2009 remake, alleging systematic misaccounting through improper fee deductions, undervalued licenses, and underreported merchandising and pay-TV income.16The Hollywood Reporter. Friday the 13th Producer Sues Warner Bros. and Paramount for Profits The outcome of that profit-participation case has not been publicly reported.17Los Angeles Times. Friday the 13th Horror Franchise Litigation Profits
Where Things Stand Now
In a March 2026 interview, Cunningham said he and Miller have “resolved their issues.” The two are collaborating on what Cunningham calls the “Jason Universe,” an alternate-universe approach to the character that avoids using the Friday the 13th title or the previous visual versions of Jason.18Dread Central. Friday the 13th: Sean S. Cunningham Says Treatment Done Cunningham has finished a treatment for what he described as an “old school” Jason film and is talking to Warner Bros. and Paramount about moving it forward. A pending merger between Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount’s parent company, he said, could consolidate the fragmented studio rights and remove a “major hurdle.”19TMZ. Friday the 13th New Movie in the Works The project still needs a writer; Cunningham said he would serve as executive producer and described his role as more of a “cheerleader.”
On television, a prequel series called Crystal Lake is in production for Peacock. A24 is producing, with Brad Caleb Kane as showrunner after original showrunner Bryan Fuller departed in May 2024 over creative differences.20Syfy. Crystal Lake: Everything to Know About the Friday the 13th Prequel Series Linda Cardellini plays Pamela Voorhees and Callum Vinson plays Jason. Miller is listed as an executive producer, a concrete sign his reclaimed rights are being used. No premiere date has been announced.21NBC. Peacock Crystal Lake Series Casts Linda Cardellini as Pam Voorhees