“Forgotten Hollywood”- A Raging Lawsuit…
Manny P. here… 
The Supreme Court was considering Tuesday whether the daughter of the man whose work was the basis of the Oscar winning Raging Bull should go another round with a major movie studio over copyright infringement for ownership of boxer Jake LaMotta’s life story.
The Raging Bull case involves an appeal from Paula Petrella, the daughter of Frank Petrella, whose written work inspired the film. Frank Petrella collaborated with his friend LaMotta on a book and two screenplays, which were used to make the movie directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert DeNiro. The 1980 film won two Academy Awards, including a Best Actor statuette for DeNiro.
The elder Petrella died in 1981, with copyrights reverting to his daughter. She sued Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. for copyright infringement for creating and distributing copies of the movie, but the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals said she may have waited too long before filing her lawsuit. JAKE LaMOTTA —–>
Now, she wants justices to resurrect her lawsuit. The studio’s lawyer suggested Petrella delayed on purpose in hopes of getting more money, saying she stalled until after the 25th anniversary of the movie in 2005 to press her claim. Petrella’s lawyer, Stephanos Bibas, said MGM had been warned about the copyright problems. Justice Antonin Scalia has questioned why MGM should be punished, considering Petrella waited so long.
Also in production is a sequel to Raging Bull. MGM had filed suit to halt the project, saying LaMotta doesn’t have the right to make a sequel. The lawsuit was settled on July 31st, 2012 when LaMotta agreed to change the title of the film to The Bronx Bull.
The bell has sounded… The full court will make a decision later this year.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 21st, 2014 at 1:19 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
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