Cult DeLorean car at the hub of movie money row

UNITED STATES: The widow of maverick car maker John DeLorean alleges in a lawsuit that a Texas company illegally received money from the Back to the Future movies that used his iconic car.

The sleek, angular car with gull-wing doors known simply as the DeLorean was featured in the 1985 movie starring Michael J Fox and two sequels.

The lawsuit, filed this week in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, includes a contract with Universal Pictures from 1989 that gave DeLorean 5 per cent of net receipts for any merchandising that featured the car and logo ‘‘as a key component’’.

According to the suit, the Texas company, called DeLorean Motor Company, represented to Universal that it had the right to the money and had already received ‘‘a substantial payment’’. The company isn’t affiliated with the one DeLorean started.

Sally DeLorean, who lives in New Jersey, settled a lawsuit in 2015 allowing the Texas company to use the DeLorean name and trademarks.

John DeLorean was an automotive innovator who began his career at General Motor and is credited by some with creating America’s first ‘‘muscle’’ car, the Pontiac GTO, in the mid-1960s. He left GM in the early 1970s to launch his own company.

Only about 9000 of his DMC 12 cars were produced before the company went bankrupt in the early 1980s, but the car’s look and cult following helped to land it a role in the Back to the Future films.

DeLorean died in 2005, after years of court battles that included a highly publicised drug trial. –AP