'Funny Face' Case Claims Ownership Of Dance Scene Is No Laughing Matter
Fri May 23, 2008 @ 02:29PM PSTPosted by Eriq Gardner
Who owns the copyright to the famous dance scene in the 1957 film "Funny Face"? (Here's a pretty good facsimile of it.)
According to the film's director, Stanley Donen, he does.
Represented by Bert Fields, Donen is suing Paramount and The Gap for using a clip of the dance in commercials that aired last year and photos of the scene in print advertisements. What makes this case so unusual is that Donen claims that he "never had a written contract with Paramount regarding 'Funny Face,' and has never conveyed to Paramount his interest in that film."
As strange as it may be that a director would have been hired without a contract, the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles goes on to acknowledge that Paramount registered the copyright in the entirety of "Funny Face," and that they have licensed the film for years to distributors without objection. Donen says "he makes no claim with respect to such distribution, which was intended when the film was made....(but) defendants have now exceeded the uses in which plaintiff acquiesced and plaintiff has strong objection to Paramount's selling the Dance Scene he created..."
We'll wait for more details to come out, but Donen also directed "Singing in the Rain," "On the Town," "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," "Damn Yankees," "The Pajama Game," and other truly classic films. Each represents a valuable part of their respective studio's film libraries. Did Donen have contracts for each of these films, and if not, who really owns them?