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In 2007, when the film "Ghost Rider" starring actor Nicolas Cage as stunt motorcyclist Johnny Blaze came out, Friedrich sued Marvel in East St. Louis, Illinois, seeking to assert his rights and gain compensation for use of the character in movies, video games, toys and promotional products. The lawsuit was moved to New York. The movie credited Marvel as the author of the Ghost Rider characters and story. A movie sequel, "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance," is scheduled to be released in February. At a deposition in St. Louis last April, Friedrich testified that he stopped doing freelance comic book writing in 1978 when his alcoholism got "completely out of control," and he spent a year traveling across the country in a truck with a friend. He said he became sober in January 1979. He said he thought he had given Marvel the rights to use Ghost Rider in comic books, but that he retained the rights for movies and anything else. "Was that understanding ever reduced to writing? Marvel attorney David Fleischer asked. "No," Friedrich answered.
[Associated
Press;
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