Top Gun 2 writer’s cousin sues Paramount saying he wrote ‘key scenes’

Top Gun: Maverick screenwriter Eric Singer’s cousin is suing Paramount saying he wrote several scenes for the film and demanding a share of the profits.

In a lawsuit filed on Sunday in a New York federal court, Shaun Gray alleges that he wrote “key scenes” for the film after being approached by Singer in June 2017.

The suit states that Gray “actively participated in story meetings” with Singer as well as director Joseph Kosinski over five months.

He claims to have maintained “meticulous, time-stamped files and emails” documenting his contribution to the movie.

Maverick is a sequel to Top Gun, released in 1986, and sees Tom Cruise reprise his role as an ace American naval pilot confronting ghosts from his past.

The sequel, released in May 2022, broke box office records to earn an estimated £1.1bn and gave a boost to the careers of actors Glen Powell and Miles Teller.

Maverick also received six Oscar nominations, including for best picture and best adapted screenplay.

“This action seeks justice for Gray, a talented screenwriter, manipulated and exploited by Hollywood power players, and demands accountability from defendants that profited prodigiously by misappropriating Gray’s creative work,” the lawsuit states.

Gray’s is the second copyright infringement lawsuit that Paramount has faced over Maverick. In 2022, heirs of author Ehud Yonay, whose story Top Guns was the source for the original film, sued Paramount for not obtaining a new licence. The case was dismissed last year.

The Yonays were represented by Marc Toberoff, now Gray’s lawyer.

“This lawsuit, like the one previously brought by Mr Toberoff in an attempt to benefit off of the success of Top Gun: Maverick, is completely without merit,” a Paramount Pictures spokesperson said in a statement quoted by Reuters.

“We are confident that a court will reject this claim as well.”

Gray argues in his suit that he never signed a work-made-for-hire deal and, therefore, is a co-author of the screenplay. He is seeking the requisite credit for the screenplay going forward as well as a share of the film’s profits. In case the court decides against granting him joint ownership of the screenplay, Gray will be bringing a claim for copyright infringement.

Gray, who has primarily worked in Hollywood as a visual effects artist, is credited as a writing consultant to Singer on the Kosinski-directed 2017 Only the Brave and as a writer’s assistant to Singer on 2009 movie The International. Gray has a staff writer credit on the Apple TV series Shantaram as well.

In a four-star review of Maverick, The Independent chief film critic Clarisse Loughrey writes: “One day, there’ll need to be a reckoning over what exactly these films do and who they benefit. But, for now, there’s another truth that’s hard to swerve: the belated follow-up Top Gun: Maverick is as thrilling as blockbusters get. It’s the kind of edge-of-your-seat, fist-pumping spectacular that can unite an entire room full of strangers sitting in the dark and leave them with a wistful tear in their eye.”