The family of the Israeli writer whose article inspired the 1986 Tom Cruise movie Top Gun is suing film studio Paramount Pictures for copyright infringement over its sequel.
They claim the studio did not have the rights to Ehud Yonay's 1983 story "Top Guns" when it released the sequel Top Gun: Maverick last month.
The film earned $548m (£438m) globally in its first 10 days of release.
Paramount says the claim was "without merit" and vowed to contest it.
Top Gun: Maverick sees Cruise reprise his role as US navy pilot Pete "Maverick" Mitchell from the original 1986 film.
It had the fourth biggest opening weekend of any film in the Covid-era, behind the best-selling Spider-Man: No Way Home, second-place Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and then The Batman.
The family is seeking unspecified damages from the film studio, including profits from Top Gun: Maverick.
According to the lawsuit, Paramount's Top Gun franchise would not have existed without Ehud's "literary efforts and evocative prose and narrative".
The lawsuit said that in 2018, the Yonays informed Paramount that its rights to Ehud's article would be terminated two years later.
It adds that the studio lost the copyright for the piece in January 2020.
Paramount said in a statement that these claims are without merit, and they will defend ourselves vigorously.
BBC
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