The widow and son of the Israeli writer Ehud Yonay who wrote the original 1983 story "Top Guns" is suing the film studio, Paramount, for copyright infringement regarding the recently released sequel, "Top Gun: Maverick".

Shosh and Yuval Yonay allege in their lawsuit – filed on Monday at the Los Angeles federal court – that Paramount did not obtain the rights to Ehud’s original magazine article after it was terminated by the family in 2020. 

The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages from Paramount - the studio that made the blockbuster sequel to the original 1986 film - including all profits. It also seeks to block distribution of the film, including further sequels. 

The film earned $548m (£438m) globally in the first ten days after its release, having been made with a budget of $170m (£136m). 

It sees legendary actor Tom Cruise reprise his role as US navy pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and return to the elite Top Gun flying academy as an instructor training a new generation of pilots to face a seemingly impossibly mission. 

The lawsuit claims that in 2018, the Yonays informed Paramount that its right to the original article would be terminated in January 2020. The film was originally slated for release in July 2019, but was delayed by the filming of several complex action sequences and then the Covid-19 pandemic. 

It adds that the sequel would not have been possible without Ehud’s “literary efforts and evocative prose and narrative”. 

Mark Toberoff, an intellectual property attorney specialising in copyright and entertainment litigation who is representing the Yonays, told the BBC: "Much as Paramount wants to pretend otherwise, they made a sequel to Top Gun after they lost their copyright.” 

Paramount said in a statement: "These claims are without merit, and we will defend ourselves vigorously."