The estate of Superman creator Joseph Schuster is suing Warner Bros. Discovery and its DC Comics, claiming it lacks the rights to release the upcoming summer tentpole in a handful of key territories.

Plaintiff Mark Warren Peary, executor to the estate, filed the suit today in Federal Court in the Southern District of New York seeking “damages and injunctive relief for Defendants’ ongoing infringement in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia, as well as declaratory relief establishing the Shuster Estate’s ownership rights across relevant jurisdictions.”

The matter is ripe for adjudication, it said, “as Defendants are actively planning a major new Superman motion picture and other derivative works for imminent worldwide release.”

The latest Superman starring David Corenswet in the title role, is fact, set for release on July 11. The cast includes Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor and María Gabriela de Faría as The Engineer.

Warner and Peary and his longtime legal team have been in court rather often before this, most recently regarding termination rights under the U.S. Copyright Act. But The automatic foreign copyright reversion issue in this case did not occur until years later, said Marc Toberoff, attorney for the estate, and was never actually litigated.

Now it will be.

“We fundamentally disagree with the merits of the lawsuit, and will vigorously defend our rights,” said a WBD spokesman.

At issue are foreign copyrights to the original Superman character and story, coauthored by Jerome Siegel and Shuster. Though Siegel and Shuster assigned worldwide Superman rights to DC’s predecessor in 1938 “for a mere $130 ($65 each), the copyright laws of countries with the British legal tradition—including Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia—contain provisions automatically terminating such assignments 25 years after an author’s death, vesting in the Shuster Estate the co-author’s undivided copyright interest in such countries,” the suit said.

“Shuster died in 1992 and Siegel in 1996. By operation of law, Shuster’s foreign copyrights automatically reverted to his estate in 2017 in most of these territories (and in 2021 in Canada). Yet Defendants continue to exploit Superman across these jurisdictions without the Shuster Estate’s authorization—including in motion pictures, television series, and merchandise—in direct contravention of these countries’ copyright laws, which require the consent of all joint copyright owners to do so.”

This is bound to be most unwelcome as DC and parent WBD start to gear up for the release. The trailer was the most viewed and the most talked about in the history of both DC and Warner Bros” when it hit in December, said DC Studios co-head James Gunn on X at the time. Watch it below.

The lawsuit requests a jury trial, claiming “defendants’ acts of direct infringement have been willful, intentional, and purposeful, in wholesale disregard of and indifference to the rights of Plaintiff.”

“As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ infringement of the Work’s copyrights and exclusive rights, Plaintiff has been injured in an amount to be determined at trial, inclusive of Plaintiff’s actual damages and Defendants’ profits,” it said.

Meanwhile, the estate is asking the court for a cease and desist order “enjoining Defendants, their officers, agents, employees, and those acting in concert with them, preliminarily during the pendency of this action and permanently thereafter from: (a) infringing, or contributing to or participating in the infringement by others the copyright in the Work or acting in concert with, aiding, or abetting others to infringe said copyright in any way; (b) copying, duplicating, selling, licensing, displaying, distributing, preparing derivative works of the Work, or otherwise using or exploiting the Work, which Plaintiff jointly owns, without Plaintiff’s prior written consent or license to do so.”

I don't like Zack Snyder, but why do you? This is a serius question, not an hate post

She was the most amazing beautiful Supergirl imaginable. Of course Gunn had to replace her with some Game of Thrones chick.

In my last post >!(which was deleted because it was 'uninteresting')!< I wrote that MoS and BvS are good movies, but a bad start for a large cinematic universe (some people agreed with this, some did not, I can reprint that post in the comments, we can discuss it again). Someone then got the wrong impression that I don't like these movies. But I do. And that controversial part of those films (the tornado scene, the death of Zod, broken Batman, etc.) made them worth the discussions, the rewatches, the love, and the criticism that they received.

But ZSJL… is just a well-made movie. It is the most cinematic universe-friendly DCEU movie made by Zack Snyder. But all this comes at the cost of character arcs:

In the MoS, Superman gives up what he has dreamed of all his life (connection to his home planet) for the sake of people and accepts that his home is Earth.

In the BvS, Batman regains his faith in humanity, and Superman gains the faith of humanity at the cost of his own life.

In the ZSJL, the heroes only become even more heroic, fighting Steppenwolf twice. It's all in the best traditions of Zack's visuals. But in terms of plot, this is just The Avengers. The arcs of the new characters are not bad. But just good is not good enough. Especially when compared to the great arcs from the previous films.

I have a feeling that everyone liked this movie not because of Snyder's vision, but because it was the least Snyder movie of all three films. Zero deconstruction and pure epic (which Snyder is also very good at).

You can prove me wrong, and I'll have something to keep in mind when I'll re-watch it.

Anyone know where I could get something that shows off like a unique arrangement of the cast or a really cool shot of BvS or the Snyder cut? Idk, something of sort with a cool 4k shot. Any ideas?

Since there will be elseworld so, i tought if was a good time to talk about it.

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I thought this sub was to praise and defend the work of Zack Snyder and the Snyderverse? Every day it seems like there's a new post trashing James Gunn' s and/or his Superman. I personally don't care about James Gunn's Superman. I don't need to see it made fun every single day with the exact same comments from both sides like "I'm a real DC fan, I don't want Gunn's garbage" or "how can you judge something that hasn't been released yet". Like who cares, can we not just chill on the hate posts and just appreciate the Snyderverse for what it is: the best part of the DCEU?

As dramatic as the title may seem, I fear it’s the truth. Think about it. Before James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, superhero films—and not just those—had a certain tone.

Even the MCU, while lighter and more lighthearted than DC, dealt with serious themes and didn’t constantly interrupt emotional moments with cartoonish jokes. Just look at Iron Man 1, which tackles sexual themes and social critiques, or Iron Man 2, where Tony struggles with alcoholism, just as in the comics.

With the arrival of Guardians of the Galaxy, the virus of inappropriate humor irreversibly contaminated the entire cinematic universe. Taika Waititi followed this trend, destroying Thor in the process.

Let’s move to DC. Seeing the success of Guardians of the Galaxy, which appealed primarily to children and less to adult audiences, DC tried to replicate it by putting Joss Whedon in charge of Justice League, and later attempting, unsuccessfully, to emulate what Gunn had accomplished.

Then came David Zaslav, who, taking advantage of Disney’s brief moment of clarity when they fired Gunn, hired him in the hope of "Marvelizing" DC. Never has there been a bigger mistake.

And here we are now, with a Superman so pathetic it’s beyond belief—a blasphemy, a sacrilege to the character—and a guaranteed financial flop from which DC may struggle to recover.

What’s worse is that it’s not just superhero films, but even mainstream cinema, that has spent these years trying to replicate the Guardians of the Galaxy formula, resulting in flop after flop.

This thought has been lingering in my mind for some time now: if cinema wants to survive, Gunn must never again direct a film unless it’s explicitly comedic.
Thoughts?

Listen, we must not let our guard down. We've already been caught off guard with the failure of Hamada's management, resting on our laurels. We thought the restoration of the Snyderverse would be automatic once Zaslav arrived, but instead, he put Gunn in charge.

When Gunn's Superman fails, like it was predicted, several options will open up. It’s obvious that Warner Bros will realize the DC brand could have been saved with Snyder, but we’re well aware of the arrogance of this major studio. So, one of three things will happen:

• Snyder will be reinstated in his rightful place.

• Yet another false prophet will be put in charge of DC, maybe Kevin Feige after Marvel fails with Secret Wars.

• The DC brand will be sold.

And it’s in the third case that we must pin our hopes. Why? Because I’m convinced that a Snyderverse fan could buy DC and force its restoration. Musk? Maybe.

Or we could do it ourselves. We could launch a crowdfunding campaign—we have a year’s time. I’m sure there’s a Snyderverse fan out there with significant capital to buy DC. If there’s ever a moment to invest that money wisely, it’s now. If you’re reading this, make yourself known.