Estate of Superman co-creator sues Warner Bros. over new film’s global release [Video]

CLEVELAND — On July 11, James Gunn’s highly anticipated Cleveland-shot ‘Superman’ movie is set for release in the United States.

However, a new lawsuit, filed by Superman co-creator Joseph Shuster’s estate, could prevent the film’s release in the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland and Australia.

Last Friday, the estate of Joseph Shuster sued Warner Bros. Entertainment and DC Comics. 

The estate says Superman creators Joseph Shuster and Jerry Siegel sold the global rights to the hero for just $130 in 1938.

Though Warner Bros. still owns the copyright to Superman in the United States, the suit claims that’s not the case in other territories with the British legal tradition, where the Shuster estate claims rights to Superman were reverted to the estate.

“This turns out to be an area of copyright law that’s quite complicated and detailed and has a lot of moving parts and operates differently in different countries,” said Betsy Rosenblatt, a law …