Kin of punk legends the Ramones are dueling in lawsuits – in a long-simmering feud that threatens to torpedo a prepared Netflix movie starring Pete Davidson as the band’s iconic singer.
Guitarist Johnny Ramone’s widow, Linda Cummings-Ramone, sparked the most up-to-date round of the bitter brawl in January when she sued singer Joey Ramone’s brother Mitchel Hyman and his supervisor David Frey for allegedly making an attempt to cut her out of the movie and the band’s merchandising deals.
But Hyman — who countersued last thirty day period — explained to The Article the film isn’t a band biopic.
“It’s not a guide about the Ramones,” Hyman instructed The Submit of his 2009 memoir “I Slept with Joey Ramone,” which the movie is set to be dependent on.
“It’s not a Ramones tale,” he explained of the guide, which outlines escalating up with the singer who battled debilatating OCD right before his 2000 demise. “It’s a story about developing up with a dude … who defeated the odds and became an inspiration to hundreds of thousands. That’s what it is about.”
Hyman and Cummings-Ramone have been locked in legal beat off and on for several years more than the Ramones and their legacy, which started in Forest Hills, Queens, again in 1974.
That is when singer Joey (true name: Jeffrey Hyman) and Johnny (true name: John Cummings) released the band with bassist Dee Dee (Douglas Colvin) and drummer Tommy (Thomas Erdelyi).
The band turned just one of the most influential groups in rock record, but only Joey and Johnny remained by way of several lineup improvements until eventually the band’s final retirmenent in 1996. All 4 founders have died.
Inspite of their large subsequent and in close proximity to-legendary status, the Ramones have been never ever a commercial achievements.
It took 38 yrs for the band’s April 1976 debut to sell 500,000 copies and go gold — and in Oct 2022, Joey Ramone’s estate marketed a stake of his songs publishing legal rights for $10 million.
Correct now, Hyman and Cummings-Ramone have break up handle of Ramones Output, Inc., the business that’s in demand of the band’s get the job done.
Hyman inherited 50% from his mom when she died in 2007, and Cummings-Ramone inherited her 50 percent when Johnny died in 2004.
In a Sunday cell phone job interview, Cummings-Ramone told The Article that she was simply hoping to defend the band’s legacy.
“This is a pretty regrettable circumstance for Ramones followers, and widows in rock-and-roll — this is pretty sad, what comes about to widows, when anyone wishes what you have,” she claimed.
“That’s what I’m hoping to do: Protect the Ramones legacy,” she continued. “That’s all. And that was left to me by Johnny Ramone, on his deathbed. Since legacy was the most vital factor to him, and the most significant matter to me.”
But in their retaliatory lawsuit, Hyman — a musician himself who goes by his phase title Mickey Leigh — and Frey claimed Cummings-Ramone was trying to consider over RPI and “install herself as the Queen of the Ramones.”
“Indeed, Ms. Cummings-Ramone’s most important objective is to embarrass, harass, and damage the integrity of Mr. Hyman, create an totally false narrative about him, rewrite her role in the heritage of the Ramones, and acquire a reputation contest in which, in her intellect, she will take about RPI and the legacy of a band of which she in no way was a member and had absolutely nothing to do with creatively,” the scathing match said.
“She is pushed by an alternate agenda, which include her personal fame and vanity, as very well as a self-serving need to hinder assignments and regulate RPI for good reasons which conflict with her fiduciary obligations and result in her to prevent any modicum of cooperation with Mr. Hyman,” it ongoing.
And the Netflix movie — introduced in April 2021 — looks to be having caught in the crossfire.
In her January lawsuit, Cummings-Ramone claimed Hyman and Frey “repeatedly failed to disclose or seek approval from fellow RPI shareholder and Director Ms. Ramone … for the valuable motion picture deal Defendants entered into unilaterally, as a substitute seizing that significant company prospect for their very own distinctive advantage.
“To permit defendants on your own to tell the authoritative story of the Ramones would be an injustice to the band and its legacy,” Cummings-Ramone stated in the papers, adding that it would “damage RPI and Ms. Ramone considerably and irreparably.”
She also claimed Hyman had threatened to leak “compromising non-public footage” that his brother experienced of her. Joey Ramone had allegedly dated Cummings-Ramone prior to she married Johnny Ramone, which produced rigidity in the team in their closing years.
Hyman and Frey equally denied every single allegation.
“There was hardly ever a menace with any of that, ever,” Frey instructed The Put up. “That’s a bald-faced lie. And compromising footage? That is a make a difference of viewpoint.”
In the meantime, Hyman took offense to the concept that they were building a film guiding Cummings-Ramone’s back again.
“What is she basing that statement on?” he questioned. “What presents her the authority or the inclination to even say that? I could not notify you, simply because I have no concept.”
Frey echoed this, stating the reserve and planned film are loved ones memoirs, not band tell-alls.
“It’s never, ever been presented as a Ramones biopic to anybody,” Frey reported — but added that both way, Cummings-Ramone granted the movie legal rights a long time in the past.
“It’s one thing she signed off on in 2006,” Frey explained. “Whether she remembers signing that or not, or what the circumstances had been about her signing it — she did indication it. Hence, she did grant all these rights.”
There is some query about irrespective of whether the authorized dogfight will shock Netflix into operating away. But Hyman explained he hasn’t read everything definitive.
“It’s regarding — I guess which is a safe word for me to use,” he advised The Submit. “I simply cannot speak for Netflix. I have a emotion they’re not joyful about it. But they haven’t referred to as and stated, ‘We do not like this, we’re completed.’”
A Netflix spokesperson declined to comment Sunday.
Reps for Pete Davidson — who is also stated as a writer and government producer on the task — did not answer to requests for comment.
The Publish has also arrived at out to Cummings-Ramone’s lawyer.
Despite the several years of infighting, Hyman reported he doesn’t feel it will place a dent in The Ramones leather-based-clad legacy.
“The Beatles aren’t any fewer well known with all the matters we have heard about them,” Hyman stated. “People are however gonna enjoy the tracks. I do not see the legacy becoming damaged from all these matters.
“But you know, it depends on the man or woman,” he continued.
“Some people really do not read this stuff or really don’t care. And some people are gossip-mongers who thrive on this s–t.”
