Michael Mann Sues Back: The Fight Over 'Heat' Copyright Explained

By Grace Kim

Michael Mann is fighting New Regency for the copyright to his original "Heat" screenplay, even as he prepares to shoot "Heat 2" on January 19. New Regency, which produced the 1995 film, filed a lawsuit on Friday asking a court to void the termination notices Mann's lawyers sent earlier this year.

At stake is a piece of US copyright law that most readers have never had to think about: termination rights. Under the Copyright Act, authors can reclaim rights they assigned away after 35 years. The catch is that this right doesn't apply to "work made for hire" — writing done as an employee or commissioned job that the commissioning company owns from the start.

What does the dispute actually turn on?

New Regency argues the "Heat" screenplay falls on the work-for-hire side. According to the suit, Warner Bros. acquired the screenplay rights in 1994 in a deal with Mann's loan-out company (a personal corporate vehicle often used in Hollywood contracts), and that deal was explicitly a work-for-hire agreement, not an assignment. If that holds, there's nothing for Mann to terminate.

Mann's side sees it differently. "We will vigorously defend this action and are confident that the courts will vindicate Michael Mann's statutory rights under the Copyright Act," a spokesperson said. "This filing has to do with original and personal writing Michael Mann did on multiple screenplays during the 1980s and which evolved into the iconic 1995 film 'Heat' that Mann wrote, produced and directed. After 40 years Michael Mann is exercising the right of authors to reclaim their work and in this case Michael Mann's original creation."

The background supports the long-germination claim: Mann developed the characters and story that became "Heat" over two decades, starting in the 1970s.

The 'oral agreement' problem

The lawsuit's sharpest passage targets the first termination notice. Mann's lawyers initially told New Regency that Mann had assigned his rights to his loan-out companies in 1988 and was terminating that assignment. When New Regency asked for a copy of the agreement, it was told the deal was oral.

"The Oral Assignment on which the First Termination Notice is based supposedly derives from an oral agreement that Mann allegedly made with himself, in which Mann, like a Shakespearean actor playing multiple parts, simultaneously spoke on his own individual behalf, as well as on behalf of MMCo. and ZZY," the complaint states.

Two later termination notices cited other agreements. New Regency claims both are invalid too. Mann's representatives say his lawyers will fight the lawsuit "vigorously."

Why "Heat 2" is safe either way

Here the practical question answers itself. Warner Bros. was originally set to produce the sequel but backed out last year; Amazon MGM Studios then acquired the film. According to the complaint, both Mann and New Regency have signed deals with Amazon that already account for the copyright fight — Mann has assigned any rights he might reclaim to the studio.

"For clarification, this is unrelated to production of Heat 2 which will begin shooting on January 19," Mann's rep said in a statement.

So the cameras roll regardless. What the case will actually decide is who owns the words behind a film Mann spent twenty years building — and, more broadly, how hard it is for a writer-director to reclaim early work routed through his own corporate shells.