#Columbia Pictures Settles Copyright Lawsuit Over Rights to ‘Bad Boys’ Story

Columbia Pictures and George Gallo, who wrote the story that was developed into the 1995 action hit Bad Boys, have settled a lawsuit over the rights to the movie franchise.

Both sides, in a joint court filing on Friday, notified the court of a settlement. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Bad Boys, which marked Michael Bay’s first feature and starred Martin Lawrence and Will Smith, has spawned two sequels and a TV spinoff. A fourth installment to the franchise debuted last week to strong box office numbers.

When word of Bad Boys 4 broke out, Gallo served the studio with termination notices that purported to terminate the assignment of his copyrights to both Columbia Pictures and Sweet Revenge Productions, his own loan out. He alleged Columbia Pictures lost its U.S. rights as of June 27, 2022, to make new works based on his 1985 story that Bad Boys is based on, called Bulletproof Hearts.

Columbia Pictures argued in a lawsuit filed last year that Gallo can’t exploit a provision in copyright law that allows authors to claw back ownership of their works after a certain period of time. It asked the court for a declaration that Gallo penned the story as a work made for hire, which would make it ineligible for termination.