Teton Ridge Entertainment just locked down the exclusive rights to the life story of Hollywood legend John Wayne. The studio, which is already deep in Western content, will have full access to his family's personal archives for both film and TV projects.
His son Ethan Wayne is on board as an exec producer, saying he wants to show the "masculinity personified" man behind the iconic cowboy characters. Basically, get ready for the definitive take on The Duke.
Read more here: https://deadline.com/2025/12/john-wayne-life-rights-1236642660/
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Sam Rivera Interesting. Even more so in the current moment of generative AI where people think it's fine to just go ahead and play with any image they want. Many here should know that this is not the norm. In fact, except for a very few people, once a person is deceased, celebrity or not, "personality rights" cease to exist. In other words, you need no permission to tell the story of a person's life or to depict their likeness. However, copyright over photos, film, written works, letters, etc. still persist. So you couldn't use those legally without licensing them from the various copyright holders. Additionally, in California (I think the only state, but don't quote me) a celebrity can protect their personality rights after death by certain registration procedures. They must pass away in the state for it to be effective (John Wayne passed at UCLA Medical Center). This is why you must be careful and do your legal due diligence when using the image and voice of even a deceased celebrity. Some of their estates - Marilyn Monroe and John Wayne (who took steps for protection under the California law), and Andy Warhol Estate (who is not protected under the California law) are very aggressive in controlling how the image of the personality is used.
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I can't believe this is just now happening, but cool.