Paramount and Spyglass have filed a lawsuit in Federal court over a special effects studio suddenly claiming ownership to the iconic Ghostface mask…
Will the real owner of the Ghostface mask please stand up?
On Friday, Paramount and Spyglass — the studios behind the iconic “Scream” franchise — failed a lawsuit in Federal court against a special effects studio that is allegedly claiming ownership to the Ghostface mask ahead of the release for “Scream 7” on February 27.
In the lawsuit, the studios say that Alterian Ghost Factory is threatening to file a claim for copyright infringement ahead of the release for “Scream 7.” The studios are seeking a court ordered injunction to prevent them from filing a lawsuit to bar Alterian from actually suing them.
Read from the lawsuit below:
“Alterian has never legally established that it owns the rights to the Ghostface mask, and it will not be able to prove it now in this litigation and seeking to disrupt the release of a completed motion picture mere weeks before its release—the seventh installment of a franchise that Alterian watched grow in silence for three decades—is an outrageous attempt to shake down” Spyglass and Paramount.”
The original Ghostface mask from the first “Scream” film released in 1996 was almost accidentally found by somebody on the production team who found it randomly and the idea was that it was such a common Halloween costume that anybody could be behind it. The production eventually licensed the use of the Ghostface mask from Fun World — a costume company that had been making and selling the mask since the early 1990s — and that has been a continued partnership through seven films.
Apparently, Alterion is arguing that Fun World should have never licensed the mask in the first place based on an original design by the special effects company. But Paramount and Spyglass countered by pointing out that if there’s any dispute at all it’s between Alterion and Fun World — but why exactly did it take Alterion until now to potentially file a lawsuit over copyright infringement considering the “Scream” franchise has been up and running for 30 years.
Judging by the timeline for this lawsuit, it seems highly unlikely the release of “Scream 7” would be interrupted but obviously Paramount and Spyglass are getting ahead of things by making this filming ahead of the Feb. 27 release date.
