Friday the 13th Star Says Legal Battles Over Franchise Have Been Resolved

Corey Feldman has been hoping for years that he would have another shot at the role of Tommy Jarvis, one of Jason Voorhees‘ most frequent opponents in the Friday the 13th franchise. Now, it seems as though he may be closer than ever to making it a reality. A long-running legal dispute between the original creators of Friday the 13th and the studio that currently holds the license to the property is apparently all but resolved, with an announcement coming soon, according to Feldman. This could mean good news not only for fans of the much-loved Friday the 13th: The Game, which has had some issues with downloadable content since the legal squabbles began, but of the film franchise.

According to Feldman, he got the information from a lawyer, who claimed to have resolved the rights issues. In Feldman’s mind, this clears a path to ignore the previous reboot — which he calls an “atrocity” — and make a movie that reunites his version of Tommy with Jason.

“I think if we do any reboots, the reboot should be the Tommy vs. Jason reboot,” Feldman told Movieweb “Interestingly enough, some guy came up to me at a party, this is true, two weeks ago, and said he has resolved the rights issues. He’s a lawyer, and he has resolved the rights issues around Friday the 13th, and that things are working out, and now they’ll be able to start making Friday the 13th movies again.”

You can see the video below.

The lawsuit at the core of Friday the 13th‘s woes is complicated, and has shades of suits that have popped up in the comics industry in the past. The Copyright Act of 1976 says that the original author of a work can petition to terminate a transfer of copyright 35 years after original publication, and Friday the 13th writer Victor Miller wants to do just that, so that he can own the property going forward. The timing of termination — in 2017 — was likely in part due to rumored movement on a sequel and in part because Miller only had a five-year window, from 2014 until 2019, to file.

The 1980 film’s director and producer Sean Cunningham claims that the screenplay was written as a work made for hire, and that as a result, his production company is legally considered to be the original author.

Cunningham wants to prevent Miller from taking over the rights, but also has claimed that Miller has been overpaid royalties in the past, presumably as a result of being identified as a creator or co-creator of the intellectual property.