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James Gunn’s Superman film will release on time, as the most recent legal challenge over Superman rights stumbles in court.
Ahead of the release of this summer’s Superman movie from director James Gunn, Warner Bros Discovery was facing a now-traditional legal case from the estate of the character’s co-creator.
Joseph Shuster, the co-creator of Superman along with Jerry Siegel, was heavily in debt by the time he passed in 1992. DC Comics it seems agreed to pay off those debts, capitalising on the death of Shuster by exacting a demand for no legal challenges to be filed over the ownership of Superman in exchange.
It’s a now-traditional legal filing because there’s something unpleasant about the whiff of it all, I’d suggest, but also, it’s another unsuccessful one. A US District Judge dismissed the latest lawsuit over the Superman rights at the end of last week, and that leaves Warner Bros a clear path to release Superman this summer.
Its bullish statement on the matter insists that “As we have consistently maintained, DC controls all rights to Superman.”
Still, the lawsuit is now being refiled in New York, so it’s not the end of the metaphorical road for the legal battle. It’s centring this time on international rights to Superman, alleging infringement of copyright laws in countries such as the UK, Canada, Ireland and Australia. The suit wants a share of profits from the recent films in which Superman and Superman characters have appeared.
The dismissal of the lawsuit was, according to the Judge, down to the fact that “infringement claims are brought explicitly under the laws of foreign countries, not the laws of the United States.”
You can read more on what happened in this piece over at The Hollywood Reporter.
As you’d expect, Warner Bros Discovery has spent big on copyright lawyers to defend its rights, and presumably will do again. There’s no way on earth now though that these legal challenges are going to delay the unveiling of the new film.
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