Three years after “Top Gun: Maverick” was released, and its script is now at the center of a lawsuit. Visual effects artist Shaun Gray, who has collaborated with “Top Gun: Maverick” screenwriter and cousin Eric Singer on two other films according to his IMDb profile, has sued Paramount Pictures claiming he wrote at least a dozen “Maverick” action scenes without credit or compensation.
Gray alleged that he worked on the script for five months with Singer and director Joseph Kosinski. Singer, Christopher McQuarrie, and Ehren Kruger have writing credits for the feature (and have recently reunited for Apple film “F1”), with Peter Craig and Justin Marks listed with a “story by” credit. “Top Gun: Maverick” was Oscar-nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay after being released in 2022.
“This action seeks justice for Gray, a talented screenwriter, manipulated and exploited by Hollywood power players, and demands accountability from Defendants that profited prodigiously by misappropriating Gray’s creative work,” the lawsuit states. Gray claims that he was key to making the film be a “smash hit.” He also is claiming joint ownership of the film’s copyright.
A spokesperson for Paramount said in a statement to IndieWire that the lawsuit is “completely without merit.” Gray’s lawyer Marc Toberoff previously sued Paramount on behalf of journalist Ehud Yonay’s family; Yonay wrote the 1983 article that the original “Top Gun” was based on. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2024 and is now on appeal.
“This lawsuit, like the one previously brought by Mr. Toberoff in an attempt to benefit off of the success of ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ is completely without merit,” a Paramount spokesperson now said about Toberoff’s other “Top Gun” case with Gray. “We are confident that a court will reject this claim as well.”
A source close to “Top Gun: Maverick” deemed the lawsuit to be a family dispute between Singer and Gray, and not a legitimate claim against Paramount. Gray is referred to as Singer’s “Top Gun: Maverick” writing assistant by the source.
Singer is listed as having worked with Gray on “Only the Brave,” which Kosinski also directed. Gray is listed as an uncredited “writing consultant” on IMDb, and also billed as Singer’s writer’s assistant on “The International.”
Singer was named by “Top Gun: Maverick” military adviser, former Navy fighter pilot J.J. “Yank” Cummings, during a 2022 interview with GQ. “In the early days, it was me, Eric, and Shaun. We spent five days straight in a hotel room in San Diego going through the screenplay line by line,” Cummings said at the time. “About a month later, Eric, Shaun, and I did five days in Eric’s Santa Monica office and Joe dropped in for the last two days to review our work. So yes, we logged a lot of time together.”
A third “Top Gun” film is now in the works, as “Maverick” actor Glen Powell teased.
