WARNING: Examining The Dead is Geekville Radio’s only explicit rated show. Content is meant for mature audiences.
Well it’s been a long few months, but Examining The Dead is back just in time for Halloween. We do apologize for not releasing any shows in the last six months, but it should be smooth sailing from here
The Coroner’s Report
Friday The 13th Video Game Lawsuit Resolution
The big news for horror gamers is the ruling in the Friday The 13th Video Game lawsuit has been handed down. Victor Miller has won his lawsuit against Horror Inc. and Sean Cunningham over rights to the franchise name. As such, Gun Media will no longer allowed to market the hit Friday The 13th video game with certain likenesses or characters. It is worth mentioning that Gun Media may still be allowed to use the classic “Hockey Mask Jason” look, as that was developed in the movies Miller did not help make.
Seth roughly equates it to a Superman lawsuit from a few years back where the estates of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were allowed to maintain ownership and licensing to the original take on Superman from the 1930’s. However, DC will still keep rights to Superman as we know him today.
Gun Media released this statement to Bloody Disgusting after the verdict was announced.
“We are disappointed in the court’s ruling and disagree with its conclusion. We are considering our options, including an appeal. We understand that this ruling has created confusion among some fans of the franchise and, more specifically, “Friday the 13th: The Game” players who have questions about new Friday the 13th content in the game.
The court was very clear that its ruling in favor of Mr. Miller is limited to the original screenplay in which Jason’s mother is the killer and that Mr. Miller’s termination notice did not purport to terminate Horror, Inc.’s separate copyright in the iconic supernatural killer who wears a hockey mask. While the ruling does not prevent Gun from continuing to sell and operate the existing game, it may complicate adding certain content to the current game in the future.
Some have asked if a settlement could be reached with Victor Miller to enable the creation of new content. Even if Gun were in a position to continue to fund the game while it was waiting for such questions to be resolved, there is no evidence to date that such a settlement is possible.
Friday the 13th director Sean Cunningham has previously reached out directly to Victor Miller to discuss a settlement. Miller responded by refusing to talk to Sean. Work on new content for fans was suspended because of the position that Miller has taken.
Given Miller’s unwillingness to discuss settlement to date and following the guidelines set down by the Court’s ruling, Horror Inc. intends to aggressively explore many opportunities for new projects featuring settings and characters not included in Mr. Miller’s screenplay.
Horror, Inc. will be providing additional details on the new Friday the 13th projects in the near future.”
There may be more to come with this story, but neither Train nor Seth rule out the possibility of this being the beginning of the end.
In movie news, we are only a few weeks away from the highly anticipated movie Halloween. This is, of course, another retelling that ignores all movies in the franchise except the original 1978 classic.
