Israeli heirs to the ‘Top Gun’ story sue Paramount Pictures for copyright infringement
Tom Cruise at a “Top Gun: Maverick” premier at Leicester Square in London, May 19, 2022. (Neil Mockford/FilmMagic via Getty Images)
(JTA) — The widow and son of the Israeli author whose 1983 magazine article inspired the original “Top Gun” film are suing Paramount Pictures for copyright infringement over the newly released sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick.”
A complaint filed in a Los Angeles federal court on Monday and shared by Variety argues that Paramount failed to reacquire the rights to Ehud Yonay’s California magazine piece after the rights reverted to his heirs Shosh and Yuval Yonay in 2020.
The Yonays, who currently reside in Israel, claim that Paramount was notified of the copyright termination in 2018 and 2022. Paramount argues that the sequel was “sufficiently completed” by Jan. 24, 2020, the date the copyright reversal went into effect.
“These claims are without merit, and we will defend ourselves vigorously,” Paramount said in a statement.
“Top Gun: Maverick” has become one of the summer’s top blockbusters, grossing over $550 million globally since its U.S. debut on May 27. The Yonays are seeking unspecified damages, including profits from the film, as well as an injunction preventing its further distribution.
Ehud Yonay, who died last year, also wrote a book titled “No Margin For Error: The Making of the Israeli Air Force.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
