Source: Reuters

According to various media publishers, the copyright conflict for the sci-fi classic ‘Predator’ has come to an end, since last week, Jim and John Thomas (screenwriters of the original 1987 Predator), agreed to drop their dispute with Disney, the company behind 20th Century Studios.

It should be remembered that this legal conflict began after Disney bought 20th Century Fox, including the Predator saga. However, after announcing their intentions to add a new chapter to the franchise, the Thomas brothers decided to file a termination lawsuit against the studio.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the original screenwriters were seeking to take advantage of the termination provision of copyright law, which allows authors to cancel transfers of rights after waiting a period of time, usually 35 years for newer works.

In this way, while the Thomas brothers wanted the court to establish that they could recover the rights to Predator and prevent 20th Century Studios from making new chapters of the franchise without license, the studio, that is now managed by Disney, filed its own legal actions arguing that said notification had been anticipated and that it had already invested a lot of time and money in a new bet on that franchise.

However, before all this turned into a long and complex legal battle, it seems that the parties solved their problems, even the Thomas Brothers lawyers assured that the scriptwriters had reached an “amicable resolution” of their conflict with Disney.

Although the details of the agreement have not been disclosed so far, the main conclusion of this deal is that 20th Century Studios (and therefore Disney) will continue to handle the future of Predator. Disney’s decision to reach an agreement will allow the studio to move forward the release of the new movie Prey, which is a Predator spin-off, whose premiere will take place on Hulu this summer.

Finally, it should be noted that Disney will increasingly turn to the courts as the Copyright Act’s termination rule threatens to transfer ownership of iconic films, including Terminator, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Die Hard, to their original owners.