In 1986, R. Lance Hill wrote the script for the film “Road House” under the penname David Lee Henry. The film starred Patrick Swayze, and has been a massive cultural phenomenon for decades. In 2024, the film was remade by Amazon Studios, MGM Studios, and United Artists. It starred Jake Gyllenhaal, and UFC fighter Conor McGregor.
Hill sued the production over “blatant copyright infringement.” The three companies behind the remake are counter-suing, and it looks like it will only get messier from here.
“Plaintiff’s Complaint ignores the well-established rule of copyright law that the author of a work made for hire is not the individual who created the work,” reads the counterclaim filed in federal court on May 3rd.
The “Road House” remake was a huge hit for the studios, setting a record with 50 million-plus viewers during its first two weekends. This is a huge part of why these companies are fighting back against Hill so hard. Amazon Studios, MGM Studios, and United Artists are represented by Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton as defendants and plaintiffs during this dispute.
Who Actually Holds Copyright?
“In 1986, Hill personally acknowledged, represented, warranted — and indeed, contractually guaranteed — that the 1986 screenplay entitled Roadhouse was created as a work made for hire for his own company, Lady Amos Literary Works, Ltd. (“Lady Amos”), and that Lady Amos — not Hill — was therefore its author within the meaning of the U.S. Copyright Act,” the companies filing explains. “For that same reason, Lady Amos, not Hill, was the grantor of the rights that UA purchased in 1986.”
“Hill cannot rewrite this history now, nearly four decades after the fact,” they add. “His attempt to terminate that grant is invalid and his copyright infringement claim is doomed to fail.”
To add insult to injury, the studios are also claiming that Hill and his attorney Marc Toberoff’s “claims are barred because Plaintiff’s copyright registration to the 1986 Screenplay was secured through fraudulent statements to the Copyright Office concerning Plaintiff’s purported authorship and ownership and, therefore, is invalid.”
If Hill knowingly lied to the government, it would invalidate pretty much any legal leg he had to stand on.
Response to Fraud Claims
“Defendants’ claim of fraud on the Copyright Office is baseless deflection,” Toberoff told Deadline. “Plaintiff informed the Copyright Office that this matter is in dispute and would be the subject of litigation.”
But the counterclaim goes after Toberoff as well. “The contradictions and falsities set forth in the Complaint are nothing but a fiction drummed up by Hill’s counsel, Marc Toberoff, to enrich them both by fabricating a fraudulent claim of copyright authorship,” it reads. “Upon information and belief, Toberoff (or a company owned and controlled by him) has acquired an interest in the rights to the 1986 Screenplay or an equivalent guarantee from his client in the expectation of an undeserved windfall settlement — a scheme Toberoff has employed to extract self-serving producer deals and other entitlements in numerous works for which he has served notices of copyright termination, ostensibly on his clients’ behalf.”
In the filing, the studios ask that the judge rule that Hill has no copyright claim to the original “Road House” script. They also request that the Copyright Office shred his January 24, 2024 registration. And to salt the wound, the studios are seeking lawyers’ fees and compensatory damages from Hill and Lady Amos.
We’ll keep you posted on updates about this legal brawl as they become available. The film is available to stream on Prime Video now.
