New Regency has sued filmmaker Michael Mann in federal court, asking a judge to confirm that it still owns the screenplay for Heat and to declare invalid the copyright termination notices he served this year.
The company filed the complaint on Friday in Los Angeles, The Hollywood Reporter reported. It comes as Mann prepares to begin shooting Heat 2, a sequel based on his 2022 novel. Mann’s representative has said the legal action is unrelated to that production, which is scheduled to begin January 19.
The allegations in the complaint have not been decided by a court. Mann’s side disputes New Regency’s position.
New Regency says the screenplay was work for hire
New Regency’s central argument is that Mann wrote the Heat screenplay as a work made for hire. Under the Copyright Act, authors can generally terminate certain grants of rights after decades, but that process does not apply to works made for hire.
According to Variety’s summary of the complaint, Warner Bros. acquired rights to the screenplay in 1994 through an agreement with Mann’s loan-out company. New Regency alleges that arrangement was expressly a work-made-for-hire deal, not an assignment of rights that Mann could later terminate.
The studio is asking the court to declare that the screenplay is not eligible for termination and that New Regency retains all rights to it. It also wants each of Mann’s three notices declared null and void.
Complaint challenges three termination notices
Mann served the notices earlier this year, according to the reports reviewed. The first sought to end copyright grants connected to the film, including an alleged 1988 oral agreement involving Mann and two companies he controlled.
New Regency’s complaint disputes that basis. As described by Variety, the filing argues that the oral agreement was effectively one Mann made with himself on behalf of different parties. Two later notices cited other agreements, which the studio also considers invalid.
Deadline reported that New Regency says the notices would, beginning in 2028, strip it of rights it has held for more than three decades. The company argues that this would cloud its title to the screenplay and affect its ability to develop, finance and license works derived from it.
Mann’s team says it will defend its rights
A spokesperson for Mann said the dispute concerns original, personal writing he did on multiple screenplays in the 1980s, which evolved into the 1995 film he wrote, produced and directed. The spokesperson said Mann is exercising the right of authors to reclaim their work after 40 years.
“We will vigorously defend this action,” the statement said, adding that Mann’s team is confident the courts will vindicate his statutory rights under the Copyright Act.
The reports reviewed do not describe a court response to either side’s arguments. They also do not indicate when a judge may rule on the complaint.
What the dispute means for Heat 2
Heat starred Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. Warner Bros. was originally set to produce Heat 2 but backed out last year, and Amazon MGM Studios later acquired the film, according to Variety.
New Regency’s complaint says certain provisions of the agreements that Mann and the company each made with Amazon depend on the outcome of the litigation. Variety reported that Mann assigned to Amazon any rights he may reclaim, and that both sides’ deals account for the copyright dispute.
Because of that arrangement, Variety said the sequel should be unaffected however the case is resolved. That is the publication’s reading of the complaint, not a ruling or a statement from Amazon. TheWrap’s account, syndicated by Yahoo, similarly reports Mann’s statement that the lawsuit is separate from the production schedule.
The dispute therefore turns on whether Mann’s early writing was independent authorship eligible for termination or work done for hire. Until a court addresses that question, the competing claims remain unresolved.
