Top Gun: Maverick studio sued by screenwriter’s cousin over uncredited scenes which he claims made the movie a smash hit
Shaun Gray, cousin of screenwriter Eric Singer, alleges he collaborated on Top Gun: Maverick's script over 5 months with his cousin and director Joseph Kosinski
American film production and distribution company Paramount Pictures is facing a fresh legal battle over their film Top Gun: Maverick after Shaun Gray – cousin of credited screenwriter Eric Singer – filed a lawsuit alleging that he played a pivotal role in crafting the blockbuster sequel’s most thrilling moments, yet received neither credit nor compensation.
According to a report in People magazine, in the legal documents Gray claims he spent five months collaborating on the screenplay with Singer and director Joseph Kosinski. He asserts that he wrote “key scenes for the screenplay that became the film’s central edge-of-your-seat dramatic action sequences that made it a smash hit.”
The filings further state: “Gray maintained meticulous, time-stamped files and emails that document and track his writing of these key scenes and his significant contributions to the film and its screenplay.”
Described in the suit as a skilled screenwriter with prior experience in visual effects, Gray contends he was “manipulated and exploited by Hollywood power players.” The lawsuit seeks justice and financial redress, stating it “demands accountability from Defendants that profited prodigiously by misappropriating Gray’s creative work.”
This is not Paramount’s first brush with legal controversy regarding Top Gun: Maverick. The studio was previously sued by Shosh and Yuval Yonay, relatives of the late Ehu Yonay, whose 1983 article served as the basis for the original Top Gun film. The Yonays argued that Paramount had committed “a conscious failure to re-acquire the requisite film and ancillary rights to the Yonays' copyrighted story prior to the completion and release of their derivative 2022 Sequel.”
According to the plaintiffs, Paramount went ahead with production on the sequel in May 2021—over a year after the rights had “reverted to the Yonays under the Copyright Act” in January 2020.
That case, handled by the same lawyer now representing Gray, Marc Toberoff, was dismissed last year but remains under appeal.
Paramount has dismissed the latest action as meritless. “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. We are confident that a court will reject this claim as well,”a spokesperson had said in a statement.
The high-octane sequel, which marked the return of Tom Cruise as LT Pete Maverick Mitchell, featured a supporting cast including Miles Teller, Glen Powell, and Val Kilmer reprising his role as Lt. Tom “Iceman” Kazanski. The film was nominated for six Oscars at the 95th Academy Awards, ultimately winning Best Sound, and amassed nearly $1.5 billion worldwide — making it the highest-grossing film of Cruise’s career and the second-biggest release of 2022.
