Christian Bale's Iconic Crime Thriller Franchise Faces New Legal Battle Over Rights
Jennifer is a TV and Movie News Editor at ScreenRant. She started her journey in entertainment media in 2022 when she first joined Valnet at CBR before coming to ScreenRant.
Jennifer loves TV, especially science fiction. She also loves late-night talk shows, due to her insomnia. Alien: Earth is definitely one of her favorite shows, and she jumps on any chance she gets to write about it. Even on her days off, she will claim an Alien Earth article if one is available.
Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon are two of her favorite late-night hosts, and Conan O'Brien before he left his show.
Her Alien: Earth coverage for ScreenRant is by far the work that she is most proud of so far.
She was initially a finance and political editor, but her passion for pop culture convinced her to transition into entertainment journalism.
During her off time, she loves to binge-watch cooking shows such as Kitchen Nightmares. Jennifer also loves spending time with her daughter and cherishes every moment of it.
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An iconic crime thriller franchise is facing a major legal battle.
Michael Mann's Heat has become the subject of a legal dispute more than three decades after the Robert De Niro-led film first arrived in theaters. The director is currently working on the sequel, Heat 2, which has already faced a large number of setbacks. And now, a new lawsuit is threatening to postpone the highly anticipated project even more as the courts decide who legally controls the original movie rights.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, New Regency has filed a lawsuit against Mann in California federal court. The company wants to retain ownership of the rights to the 1995 film's screenplay. The complaint was filed on Friday, November 13, 2026, and is trying to prevent Mann from reclaiming those rights under the United States' copyright law.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.