Back in January, we learned that Warner Bros. and director James Gunn's Superman may have run into a (potentially) major roadblock on its journey to the big screen.
Mark Peary, the nephew of the late Superman co-creator Joe Shuster, filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. Discovery/DC Studios/DC Comics, claiming that the studio lacks the rights to release the DCU reboot in a handful of key territories, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia.
The matter has to do with foreign copyrights to the original Superman character and story. Though Siegel and Shuster assigned worldwide rights to DC’s predecessor in 1938, the copyright laws of countries with the British legal tradition contain "provisions automatically terminating such assignments 25 years after an author’s death, vesting in the Shuster Estate the co-author’s undivided copyright interest in such countries."
“Shuster died in 1992 and Siegel in 1996. By operation of law, Shuster’s foreign copyrights automatically reverted to his estate in 2017 in most of these territories (and in 2021 in Canada). Yet Defendants continue to exploit Superman across these jurisdictions without the Shuster Estate’s authorization—including in motion pictures, television series, and merchandise—in direct contravention of these countries’ copyright laws, which require the consent of all joint copyright owners to do so.”
If the suit is successful, it could potentially interfere with the movie's release this July, but Variety is now reporting that Warner Bros.has filed a motion to dismiss.
The studio notes that the courts have repeatedly rejected Peary’s claims, finding that his mother, Jean Peavy, signed away all rights to the Superman character after Shuster’s death in 1992. However, the estate’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, argues that in the overseas territories, copyright assignments automatically terminate 25 years after the author’s death.
It's hard to say how far this thing will go, but we can't imagine it will ultimately have any impact on the movie's release.
Warner Bros. was reportedly required to respond to the suit by March 24, but filed the motion to dismiss nearly three weeks early. The studio asked that if the judge does not dismiss the case, that it should be transferred to the Los Angeles judge who handled it previously.
Superman stars David Corenswet as the Man of Steel, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Isabel Merced as Hawkgirl, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy Gardner, and Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho.
Sara Sampaio is on board as Lex's assistant/lover Eve Teschmacher, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell will play "Ma" and "Pa" Kent, and Milly Alcock's Supergirl has been confirmed to make her debut ahead of her own Woman of Tomorrow movie.
"And that’s a wrap," Gunn posted earlier this year when filming concluded. "God bless our cast and crew whose commitment, creativity, and hard work have brought this project to life. I set out to make a movie about a good man in a world that isn’t always so much. And the goodness and kindness and love I’ve encountered on a daily basis on the set has inspired me and thrust me forward when I felt too spent to move on my own.
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. It has been an honor. The destination has been Superman, but the journey has been the toil and the laughter and the emotions and ideas and magic we’ve shared together on set - and for that I am forever grateful."
You can check out an updated synopsis for the movie below.
"In his signature style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness of humankind."