‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Writer’s Cousin Sues, Claiming He Wrote Key Scenes

The cousin of “Top Gun: Maverick” screenwriter Eric Singer sued Paramount Pictures on Sunday, claiming he wrote key action scenes in the film without credit or compensation.

Shaun Gray, who has worked primarily as a visual effects artist, alleges that he worked on the script for five months with his cousin and with director Joseph Kosinski, and kept “meticulous, time-stamped files” documenting his contributions.

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“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 had worked with Singer before “Top Gun,” according to his IMDb profile. He is listed as an uncredited “writing consultant” on “Only the Brave,” a film about wildland firefighters written by Singer and directed by Kosinski. He is also identified as Singer’s writer’s assistant on “The International.”

His involvement in “Top Gun” was confirmed by J.J. “Yank” Cummings, a former Navy fighter pilot who served as an adviser on the film. In a 2022 interview with GQ, Cummings said that Gray participated in a series of meetings about the script.

“In the early days, it was me, Eric, and Shaun. We spent five days straight in a hotel room in San Diego going through the screenplay line by line,” Cummings told the magazine. “About a month later, Eric, Shaun, and I did five days in Eric’s Santa Monica office and Joe dropped in for the last two days to review our work. So yes, we logged a lot of time together.”

Gray’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, previously sued Paramount on behalf of the family of Ehud Yonay, the magazine writer who authored the 1983 article on which the original “Top Gun” was based. That suit was dismissed last year, though it remains on appeal.

“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 spokesperson said in a statement. “We are confident that a court will reject this claim as well.”

Toberoff, a veteran plaintiff’s lawyer on copyright matters, recently sued Warner Bros. over the distribution of “Superman” in several foreign markets. That suit was thrown out last week, though Toberoff refiled in state court.

In this case, Gray alleges that he wrote no fewer than a dozen action scenes for “Top Gun: Maverick,” which ended up in the film and “made it a smash hit.”

Gray claims joint ownership of the film’s copyright, and alleges he is entitled to an injunction that would preclude Paramount from infringing on his copyrighted material during the pendency of the suit.

Singer shared writing credit on the film with Christopher McQuarrie and Ehren Kruger. Peter Craig and Justin Marks shared “story by” credit. They were nominated for an Oscar for best adapted screenplay.

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