1981
Don Post Studios asks the Halloween filmmakers for a license to market a Michael Myers mask and is refused.
Don Post Studios v. Cinema Secrets.
The mask company that couldn’t give the Kirk mask away spent two decades trying to own its famous descendant. A federal judge ended that in 2000. Everything below is from the two opinions, which are public records.12
1985
Don Post gives sculptor Neil Surges “the same foam master which had been used to create the Captain Kirk mask” and has him reproduce it for mass production. Surges recognizes Shatner; an employee tells him the film’s character “was based on a William Shatner life mask or cast.” Surges’s calendar: “finish Wiliam [sic] Shatner bust.”
1986
The studio begins selling “Don Post The Mask,” flesh-toned at first, white within a year. It sells well.
1997
The studio’s lawyer, shown a Kirk mask, a copy of the film mask and the product, concludes the product is “a derivative work of a preexisting mask with different facial coloration, hair, and eyes.” The Copyright Office rejects the application. A second lawyer, who interviews only Don Post, files an application calling it “an original creation” with no mention of the film or the Kirk mask. It is granted.
1999
Cinema Secrets obtains a non-exclusive license from the film’s copyright holder; sculptor Chris Hanson works from three small pictures and a videotape of the film; licensing agent Mickey Yablans approves it. Don Post Studios sues that fall.
2000
Judge Eduardo C. Robreno: “the evidence clearly establishes that DPTM is a copy of the mask worn by the character Michael Myers in Halloween. Because DPTM is a copy of the Michael Myers Halloween mask, DPTM’s copyright is invalid.” Don Post’s claim of independent creation is “simply not credible.”
2001
The court awards Cinema Secrets its attorney’s fees under the Copyright Act, calling the suit “frivolous, objectively unreasonable” and brought in bad faith, and describes Surges as hired “to essentially recreate the mask that Don Post Studios had prepared for the film Halloween.”
Disputed The same 2000 opinion is where the second dispute lives. Its Facts section records Don Post Studios’ claim that during preproduction the filmmakers asked it to modify a Kirk mask, that it “delivered it to the filmmakers,” and that it “was paid $150.00 for its work on the mask.” Don Post testified; Wallace and Carpenter did not, and the judge found Post’s testimony on other points not credible. Wallace denies the claim.13