LogFAQs > #979086776

People having the rights to characters they created is actually pretty standard. It's why even now on Doctor Who if an episode features a returning monster you're likely to see a separate mention in the end credits for the person who wrote the first story the monster showed up in. It's why both iterations of Fraiser carry a big credit for the writers of Cheers. It's why Smallville and Gotham carry credits for the creators of Superman and Batman.

When it comes to freelancers/contractors there are caveats, of course, depending on how much was in the brief they were given when they were commissioned - to keep the Doctor Who comparison going, this is why Terry Nation's estate continue to get royalties for and control over the use of the Daleks, while Anthony Coburn's son fails repeatedly to try and claim that the rights to the TARDIS should lie with his father's estate - while both writers are credited with the initial appearance, the former full-on invented the Daleks and so has intellectual proprietorship, while the latter was working to a brief of "this is how Doctor Who and his pals are going to travel" so doesn't get to claim to have invented it. But I highly doubt that when Miller was hired he was specifically told by the studio to include a scene right at the end when a kid specifically called Jason gets out of the water for a jump scare.

So technically, going by the industry standard precedent set over decades, Miller is right to say that he created Jason Vorhees, so he has the final say over the use of character.

The fuckery here, of course, is that while Miller created Jason Vorhees, he didn't create Jason Vorhees. Literally everything that pop culture associates with the character aside from the name and the backstory came from a later flick.

I could totally be on board with matey-boy saying that he wasn't giving permission for another flick with Mrs Vorhees as the killer. That would totally be within his rights. If he wanted to say that they couldn't do any more films where Jason is a weird water goblin child then honestly I'd support that 100%, partially because of the rights issues, but mostly just because it would be a fucking stupid idea. Hell, given how iconic a setting it has become I might even go so far as to say that he should probably have the rights to Camp Crystal Lake (though that could be a Coburn/TARDIS situation).

But I think that the giant, machete-wielding, mask-wearing, slow-walking, sometimes-space-going zombie murderer is so far removed in all but name from what Miller created that it's just too tenuous to give him support here. Like... he's right, but that doesn't make him right.