movie. The 1995 Will Smith-Martin Lawrence buddy comedy was a hit that spawned a franchise, with two sequels and a third in the works, that has grossed more than $840 million at the global box office.
The breach-of-contract suit filed in the Central District of California, Western Division, is in response to copyright termination notices filed in 2020 by George Gallo, who co-wrote the story on which the first film was based, and Robert Israel.Columbia argues that Gallo’s story, written in 1985 and called “Bulletproof Hearts,” was a work for hire via his company Sweet Revenge. Works for hire “are not subject to termination under Section 203 of the Copyright Act,” the studio says.
Gallo says the work was not work for hire and that any rights Columbia had to make derivative works of his story ended on June 27, 2022. He had filed a pair of notices on the matter in June 2020, after news broke of a fourth movie being in the works. “The contract regarding the 1995 film explicitly states, complete with full personal representations and warranties from Mr. Gallo, that the story – which was transformed by many other writers into what became the original film — was written as a work-for-hire,” Columbia said in a statement today. “By law, such rights cannot be terminated.