Overview
- The studio filed suit Friday in federal court in Los Angeles asking a judge to declare three termination notices Michael Mann served are null and void and that New Regency retains all rights to the Heat screenplay.
- New Regency argues the screenplay was created as a work made for hire, a legal label that would make it ineligible for the Copyright Act’s termination process.
- Mann’s spokesperson said he is exercising long‑running statutory rights to reclaim his early Heat writing and that he will vigorously defend those notices in court.
- Both sides have separate deals with Amazon for Heat 2 and say the litigation affects certain contract provisions while production is scheduled to begin shooting on January 19.
- The case turns on a technical copyright point: authors can use Section 203 to reclaim assigned rights after decades but not for works made for hire, so the court’s ruling could reshape who can control, finance, and license derivative projects tied to older films.