After months of silence on the progress of lawsuits over Dungeons & Dragons movie rights, it appears that Hasbro and Sweetpea Entertainment have finally settled their differences. All rights have been returned to Habro subsidiary, Wizards of the Coast.

Though no release date has been specified, the D&D film project is in progress under Warner Bros. Pictures, which already has a script by David Leslie Johnson (The Conjuring 2, Wrath of the Titans). Listed as producers are Brian Goldner of Hasbro; Stephen Davis, Courtney Solomon, and Allan Zeman of Sweetpea Entertainment; and Roy Lee (The LEGO Movie, How to Train Your Dragon).

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A March 25th trial date has been set for claims and counterclaims over the rights to produce a Dungeons & Dragons movie.

In tentative oral rulings issued January 17th, U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee denied certain of Sweetpea Entertainment’s motions for summary judgement.

I think there is ample evidence for a jury to decide whether or not there has been contributory infringement.

At the same time, Judge Gee said that she would be granting Sweetpea’s motion in regards to Hasbro’s claim of direct infringement. Sweetpea had asserted that there could be no direct infringement because the script that it had offered was rejected by its partner, Warner Bros. Pictures.

The judge also indicated that she would probably deny Hasbro’s motions for summary judgement on Sweetpea’s counterclaims for trademark infringement, while granting Hasbro’s motion with regard to Sweetpea’s claim of copyright infringement.

[via Law360]

UPDATE: Changes, based on corrections at source, made 1/28/2014.

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After losing its plea for summary judgement, Sweetpea has filed a counterclaim in the legal wranglings over the rights to make a Dungeons & Dragons movie. Sweetpea claims that not only have the sequel rights not reverted to Hasbro, but that even if or when they do, the original contract gave Sweetpea the permanent exclusive rights to all Dungeons & Dragons copyrighted material, including the name “Dungeons & Dragons”, for live-action motion pictures. In other words, even if Sweetpea can’t make a D&D movie, neither can Hasbro.

Sweetpea’s counterclaim [PDF] also asserts that after the sequel rights revert, it maintains a “Right of Last Refusal”. That is, Sweetpea would be able to assert the right to make a film on the same financial terms that Hasbro had agreed to with any other entity.

[via Hollywood Reporter]

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