Most do not know that the movie that turned Tom Cruise into a superstar was based on an article written by an Israeli author on his conversations with Air Force pilots. As it turns out, the current production company that made the new “Top Gun” movie did not know that either, and now, a lawsuit is underway because of it.
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The family of the Israeli author whose essay inspired the 1986 film "Top Gun", starring Tom Cruise, sued Paramount in June for copyright infringement over the sequel - "Top Gun: Maverick", which has had great success in recent months. According to a complaint filed in a federal court in Los Angeles, Paramount Global failed to reacquire the rights to Ehud Yonay's 1983 article "Top Guns" from his family before releasing the sequel, which has so far grossed $1.3 billion worldwide.
A lawsuit over the rights to “Top Gun: Maverick” should be dismissed as meritless, according to Paramount Pictures, after the studio was sued over the sequel, with plaintiffs Shosh and Yuval Yonay claiming that Paramount no longer had rights to the film.https://t.co/05U7ERm4pb
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) August 27, 2022
Yonay, born in 1940, traveled to the United States after his military service where he worked as a senior reporter for California Magazine. During his work, he intended to write about a secret aircraft of the US Air Force but encountered resistance from the military.
After the initial investigation, the article changed direction and Yunai turned to talk to different pilots. They collaborated with him and the article was finally published in 1983, under the title "Top Guns", similar to the original title of the film that would break numerous records just a few years later.
An article called “Top Guns,” written by Ehud Yonay in 1983, was credited in the original Top Gun film when it came out in 1986. For 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, the family of Yonay argued that rights to the article were not reacquired by Paramount Global. https://t.co/XgNHoSurjK pic.twitter.com/kpuimFMw4f
— EstatePlanningSD (@LegacyLawSD) August 15, 2022
Noam Cohen, an Israeli reporter focusing on legal matters, spoke about the ongoing case on Israeli radio recently.
"At the end of the day comes another part of this story, the studios that produced the film submitted a request to the court in which the case is being handled, to cancel the Yonai family's lawsuit. This is on the grounds that the family's claims are baseless," said Cohen, "according to them, fighter pilots who love to fly are not the only pilots mentioned in the article. There is no monopoly on these facts. Therefore, they asked not to renew the family's creative license."
"The Yonai family is prevented from giving any kind of response because they are still in the culmination of a legal process. Their lawyer claims that there is a case here, and they will continue to fight. As mentioned, these matters continue in court and we shall see."
