Top Gun Screenwriter Cinema: Maverick claims to have written ‘key scenes’ in new processeshaun gray claims to have dated files and emails that prove their significant contribution to the film

Another process involving the script indicated to the Oscar of Top Gun: Maverick It was opened, this time by the co-writer’s cousin Eric Singer.Shaun Gray He claims to have made significant contributions to the film without receiving credit or compensation.

In the process, obtained by Rolling StoneGray claims that Singer asked for his help after being hired to write the script Maverickin June 2017.

According to Gray, he worked during “Five months” next to the cousin, attending script meetings with Singer and the director Joseph Kosinskiand writing “Key scenes for the script that became the dramatic action sequences that arrested the audience and made the film an absolute success.”
(Top Gun’s final script: Maverick is credited to Singer, Christopher Mcquarrie and EHREN KRUGERwith “history by” attributed to Peter Craig and Justin Marks.)

Gray filed the action against PARAMOUNT PICTURES and your mother company, Global Paramount. He seeks recognition as copyright co -author of the film, as well as indemnities.

The petition lists 12 scenes that Gray claims to have written, including important sequences such as the opening of the film, in which Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (interpreted byTom Cruise) breaks the speed record by piloting an experimental jet; a training scene in which Maverick surpasses other Top Gun graduates; And a sequence in which Maverick shows riders that the “impossible” mission is actually viable. The action also claims that Gray wrote great excerpts from the film’s climax, including the scene where Maverick and Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller) steal an enemy F-14 and Maverick makes a forced landing of the aircraft in a aircraft carrier.

According to the process, Gray “He kept detailed and dated files and emails that document and track his writing of these key scenes and their significant contributions to the film and its script.” The action also states that Singer and Kosinski “They consistently praised” Gray for the work in the project. (Although not mentioned in the process, a Military Consultant from Maverick also recognized Gray’s contribution to the script in a GQ report, published in 2022.)

Despite acting mainly as an artist of visual effects, Gray also has some credits as a screenwriter on his IMDB profile. He worked on the TV series Shantam -co-created by Singer-and collaborated without credits in two other films written by Singer: The International (2009) and Only the Brave (2017).

Gray’s lawyer is Marc Toberoffthe same one that represented the authors of another process involving Top Gun: Maverick. In this case, the journalist’s family Ehud Yonay claimed that the copyright of the magazine article Top Gunswhich inspired the original 1986 movie, had returned to them in January 2020, and that Paramount continued with Maverick without a new license. However, last April, a judge decided against the Yonay, stating that there were not enough similarities between the report and the sequence to support the copyright claim. (The Yonay appealed from the decision.)

About Gray’s process, a Paramount Pictures spokesman said:

“This process, just like the previous one moved by Mr. Toberoff trying to benefit from the success of Top Gun: Maverick, is totally unfounded. We are confident that the court will reject this claim as well.”

Toberoff replied in a note:

“As the studio well knows, this action has absolutely no relation to the previous top Gun process, currently in appeal. Paramount can deny and dodge as much as it wants, but Annex 2 of Petition Clearly documents Shaun Gray’s significant co-authorship in Top Gun: Maverick, with detailed files of files and dated e-mails sent to Eric Suger-and, in some cases, directly to the director-directly to the director to the director. Joe Kosinski – containing numerous essential scenes written by Gray. ”

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This article is a translation of Rolling Stone American, written by Jon Blistein and published on April 28, 2025. Read the original version here.

This story was updated at 6:28 pm (Brasília time) with Marc Toberoff’s statement.