New Regency is suing director Michael Mann over the rights to the screenplay for the 1995 film Heat. In a new suit filed Friday (per The Hollywood Reporter), the production company claimed that a provision that lets creators reclaim ownership of their work through copyright termination doesn’t apply to the screenplay because it was written on a “work-for-hire” basis. Mann, who is trying very hard to be careful around volatile things in the lead-up to filming Heat 2 with Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale, Adam Driver, and Stephen Graham, is presumed to have said, “it’s a free country, brother,” and defended his claim to the screenplay in a statement through a spokesperson. “This filing has to do with original and personal writing Michael Mann did on multiple screenplays during the 1980s and which evolved into the iconic 1995 film Heat that Mann wrote, produced and directed,” the statement read. “After 40 years, Michael Mann is exercising the right of authors to reclaim their work and, in this case, Michael Mann’s original creation.”
This beef between the director and the production company reportedly began earlier this year, when Mann issued three notices to New Regency to reclaim copyright in the screenplay and the underlying materials that contributed to its creation. New Regency instead pointed to an agreement involving Mann and two companies he controlled at the time, which Mann disputes, saying a 1988 oral agreement was made that allegedly guaranteed him core rights to the work. The production company says their agreement falls under “work-for-hire.” “[It’s] a fact that Mann stated repeatedly in written agreements that he personally signed, both on his own behalf and on behalf of companies that he controlled,” New Regency said in its complaint (per The Wrap). THR notes that the “work-for-hire” distinction is critical to New Regency’s case, as such copyrights are “generally not eligible to be terminated since the employer, rather than the individual writer, is legally considered the author.”
“The Termination Notices cloud Regency’s title to the Screenplay and impair its ability to develop, finance, and license works derived from it,” New Regency’s filing read. “In addition, certain provisions of the agreements that Mann and Regency each entered into with Amazon with respect to Heat 2 depend on the outcome of this litigation.” Mann’s spokesperson wrote that the director’s team is “confident that the courts will vindicate Michael Mann’s statutory rights under the Copyright Act,” and that this matter is “unrelated to production of Heat 2,” which is expected to begin filming on January 19, 2027.
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