The Conjuring Brings A New Lawsuit To The Warner Bros Studios

The horror story is turning more into a legal story as the franchise faces one more demand. The Conjuring franchise is now facing a $900 million demand over copyright issues. Gerald Brittle claims the movies violates his exclusive rights to create works based on the Warrens cases.

The franchise has been full of demands since the first movie premiered. Not only from the owners of the house that inspired the movie but also from the film’s producer. This is getting scary.

via GIPHY

One more for the list.

The Conjuring is facing one more demand, this time includes a $900 million damages claim. Gerald Brittle filed a 365 page amended complaint against Warner Bros., New Line, and the film’s director, James Wan.

The file exposes that Brittle had previously acquired the exclusive rights to create works derived from the Warrens cases, which is broken by The Conjuring and Anabelle movies. Brittle is the author of horror book The Demonologist, which tells the stories of paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren. Does that ring a bell?

While Warner states that back in 1978 Lorraine granted the production company the rights, Brittle states that he had previously acquired those rights from Lorraine. According to Brittle’s attorney, Patrick C. Henry II the logical conclusion is that the company proceeded even knowing they needed Brittle’s permission and neglecting it, he stated, “Defendants have built a billion-dollar franchise based on rights they knew they did not possess.”

Not the ideal argument.

Warner has stated that the films are based on historical facts which come handy for Brittle’s legal team that says that the Warrens’ cases and even The Demonologist are not historical facts since the couple lied about what happened in their stories.

At the time Brittle acquired the rights of the Warrens stories, he thought to be true, he later found out they were all lies. This means Warner cannot be guarded by the “fair use” doctrine since it’s a creative work and not a historical one.

Henry said, “To the extent , the Defendants’ movies are not based on ‘historical facts’ they cannot claim they are protected by the ‘fair use’ doctrine exemption to copyright.” Also, in 2011 the movies’ director praised Brittle’s work via Twitter, which comes as a proof that there was inspiration from Brittle’s book to write the script. Uh oh.

A spooky story turned into a constant legal fight.

This is no the first lawsuit Waner Bros. faces with The Conjuring franchise. After the movie was out, one of the films’ producers, Tony DeRosa-Grund, argued that Warner was infringing copyright. De Rosa-Grund also stated that he owned the movie since he had a treatment with Ed Warren that dated from the very first time they discussed the stories. In the treatment, they practically came up with the films plot twist, which was later used by the companies without his agreement.

Then in 2015 the owners of the Rhode Island farmhouse sued the studio over trespassing fans that caused multiple damages, including physical ones.