New Regency has sued filmmaker Michael Mann, asking a California federal court to confirm that the company retains ownership of the screenplay for Heat as a high-profile follow-up to the 1995 crime drama classic takes shape.
In the lawsuit, filed on Friday, New Regency argues that Mann cannot use a provision of copyright law that allows creators to claw back ownership of their works after a certain period of time. The company is seeking a court order clarifying that it holds the rights to the Heat screenplay. "The Screenplay is not subject to termination," the complaint states.
A spokesperson for Mann said in a statement that the director is "confident that the courts will vindicate Michael Mann's statutory rights under the Copyright Act." The spokesperson added: "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. After 40 years Michael Mann is exercising the right of authors to reclaim their work and in this case Michael Mann's original creation."
The legal fight arrives as Mann prepares to film Heat 2, a sequel starring Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and the late Val Kilmer. The upcoming film is based on Mann's 2022 novel of the same name, which serves as both a prequel and a sequel to the original movie.
In Friday's lawsuit, New Regency contends that Mann's attempts to terminate its copyright for Heat are invalid because the director wrote the screenplay as a work made for hire.
According to the complaint, Mann served three notices to New Regency earlier this year seeking to reclaim the copyright to the screenplay and underlying materials for Heat, setting off a dispute over who owns the rights to the film. The lawsuit says the first notice sought to terminate all copyright grants for Heat, including an alleged 1988 oral agreement involving Mann and two companies he controlled. The director allegedly later told New Regency that the assignment had never been formally put in writing and that he had only recently discovered the arrangement.
The assignment question is central to the case because Mann is arguing that he wrote Heat-related materials as an independent author rather than as an employee. The distinction could prove decisive, since copyrights for works made for hire are generally not eligible for termination: 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," the complaint states. It adds that "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 stressed that the dispute is separate from the sequel's production plans, saying: "We will vigorously defend this action and are confident that the courts will vindicate Michael Mann's statutory rights under the Copyright Act. For clarification, this is unrelated to production of Heat 2 which will begin shooting on January 19."
