Morton Stevens heirs sue CBS over Five-O theme

Morton Stevens (1929-1991)

Shoutout to Craig Henderson for bringing this to our attention.

The heirs of composer Morton Stevens have sued CBS over the theme to Hawaii Five-O, according to STORY IN THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

Here’s an excerpt:

Stevens died in 1991, which, according to a complaint filed in California federal court, was about six years before the renewal copyright term for the Hawaii Five-0 theme commenced. That’s important because under copyright law, for works created before 1978, when an author dies before the original term of a copyright grant expires, rights revert to the heirs.

Notwithstanding this quirk of copyright law, CBS is said to have filed a renewal registration for the theme in 1997. The lawsuit says that CBS didn’t have the right to do this.

CBS was interested as early as 1997 in coming out with a new Five-O. That year, it commissioned a pilot where members of the original Five-O team teamed up with the current Five-O to investigate the shooting of Gov. Dan Williams (James MacArthur). The pilot didn’t result in a series and that production has never received a public airing. Clips have shown up on YouTube and the pilot included the Stevens theme.

In 2010, CBS came out with a rebooted Five-0 (now spelled with a zero instead of a capital O) with all-new versions of Steve McGarrett & Co. That show, now in its fifth season, also uses the Stevens theme. Stevens receives a credit in very tiny type in the end titles.

To read The Hollywood Reporter story, CLICK HERE.

New M:I movie title is Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation

Tom Cruise

Paramount said today that the fifth Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible movie will be titled Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation and the movie’s trailer is due out March 23.

The studio also released a television commercial, a kind of teaser to the teaser trailer. According to the video, the title refers to the Syndicate, “a rogue nation trained to do what we do,” in the words of Cruise’s Ethan Hunt.

In the original 1966-73 television series, the Syndicate referred to the Mafia and organized crime. M:I and other shows of the era — including Mannix, a private eye drama from the same production company — avoided direct references to the Mafia.

The existence of the 21st century version of the Syndicate was teased at the end of 2011’s Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol.

Paramount originally planned to release Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation on Dec. 25, but moved it up to July 31.

Here’s the commercial released today:

UPDATE: Vanity Fair has an article how Cruise performed the signature stunt shown at the end of the video. To view it, CLICK HERE.