It’s now been over a decade since we’ve seen a Friday the 13th film make its way into theaters, and given the messy, messy lawsuit that currently plagues the franchise, we’re still unsure of when Jason Voorhees might make his grand return. Nonetheless, Larry Zerner, an entertainment lawyer who also starred in Friday the 13th Part III is now bringing us a promising update which has given fans hope that the situation could be resolved as soon as next week.
Back in the fall, we were told that Victor Miller, writer of the original 1980 Friday the 13th, had won back the rights to the character of Jason after a long legal brawl with director and producer Sean S. Cunningham, one which has kept the series in a state of limbo for some time now. Shortly after that, however, the case took another unfortunate turn when Cunningham filed a notice of appeal, meaning that the battle would rage on for a while longer.
Just recently, though, we learned that the producer had withdrawn his appeal, and while it was done so purely for technical reasons, this still leaves Cunningham with only two options. One is that he can refile the appeal and drag out this surely expensive courtroom battle for several more months, only to possibly lose again. Or, him and Miller can find a way to settle this thing and get back to work on bringing us more Friday the 13th movies.
Unfortunately, we’re still waiting to see what’ll happen, but Zerner notes that at the moment, no settlement has been reached. However, he believes that both parties feel they can resolve the matter and that’s why the appeal was likely dismissed in the first place.
“Also, based on my experience, the most likely reason that they dismissed the Appeal is that both sides believed that they could get the case settled. So, fingers crossed,” said Zerner.
Now, we should note that Larry Zerner is not a lawyer on this case. He’s a lawyer, but not one who’s working on the legal battle between Miller and Cunningham. Still, his opinion and thoughts count for something and he’s also not the first person to state that they think an end is in sight.
In any case, Zerner tells us that “the parties stipulated to dismiss the appeal but must reinstate by 4/12. So, that gives them [several] more days to settle the case.” Which means that it’s very possible that by this time next week, the lawsuit that’s been surrounding Friday the 13th for so long now might finally be at an end. As always, watch this space for more.
