LOS ANGELES (CN) — A federal judge ruled against the widow and son of the author of the original 1983 "Top Guns" magazine article, who claimed Paramount Pictures' 2022 "Top Gun: Maverick" sequel infringed on their copyright to the story.
U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson in Los Angeles granted Paramount Pictures' request for summary judgment on the family's infringement and breach of contract claims.
According to the judge, there are no substantial similarities entitled to copyright protection between the magazine article and the movie, in which Tom Cruise reprises his role as Navy pilot "Maverick" from the 1986 blockbuster.
"The plots, sequences of events, and pacing of the works are largely dissimilar," Anderson said. "Any similarities are based on unprotected elements, such as general plot ideas, facts or scènes à faire."
Shosh and Yuval Yonay sued Paramount in 2022, claiming that two years earlier they had terminated the copyright the movie studio had acquired in 1983 to their late husband and father's story. They claimed the 2022 sequel, just as the 1986 movie, is based on Yehud Yonay's original story, first published in California magazine.
Yehud Yonay’s 1983 magazine story recounted the experiences of two lieutenants at the Navy Fighter Weapons School training program, one a hotshot pilot, Yogi, and his friend and second in the two-man cockpit, Possum. The story portrayed the Naval Air Station "as a place of death-defying competition, comradery, romanticism and 1950s post-war nostalgia," according to the pair.
However, the judge agreed with Paramount in his ruling issued Friday that the 2022 sequel, in so far as it incorporates similar elements as the 1983 magazine article — such as fighter pilots landing on an aircraft carrier, being shot down while flying and carousing at a bar — those are either facts or familiar stock scenes that aren't entitled copyright protection.
Moreover, according to Anderson, the magazine article is a non-fiction work that explains how Yogi and Possum’s fighter squadron fits into the overall structure of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet, including Top Gun’s location at the Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego and the “officer’s club,” the bar where the Top Gun pilots go for drinks and entertainment.
"Top Gun: Maverick," on the other hand, portrays the Tom Cruise character getting ordered back to the Naval Air Station North Island to train a group of Top Gun graduates for a dangerous mission to destroy a uranium enrichment plant in enemy territory.
"In sum, an objective comparison of works’ respective plots, sequences of events, pacing, themes, moods, dialogue, characters, and settings demonstrates that they are not substantially similar," Anderson said. "While the article and sequel have some similarities, those similarities are based on unprotected elements."
Attorneys for Shosh and Yuval Yonay didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.
“We are pleased that the court recognized that plaintiffs’ claims were completely without merit,” a Paramount Pictures spokesperson said in a statement on the decision.
The studio is still facing another lawsuit over the 2022 sequel by the actor who played Lieutenant Junior Grade Henry “Wolfman” Ruth in the original "Top Gun" and who claims that Paramount used his likeness in the 2022 movie without his authorization.
"Top Gun: Maverick" was released in 2022 after delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic that had kept movie theaters closed. It grossed about $1.5 billion worldwide, making it the most successful movie in Cruise's career in terms of box-office revenue.
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