Urgent:Joey Ramones Rushed to the hospital in a critical condition

The long-running court battle between the relatives of the late Ramones founders Joey and Johnny Ramone has taken a new turn, this time over a planned Netflix film about the groundbreaking punk band that would star Pete Davidson.

Joey’s brother Mickey Leigh (Mitchel Hyman) “covertly produced an unapproved and unauthorized Ramones-based biography” based on his own “one-sided narration of the history of the Ramones,” according to a complaint filed Saturday (Jan. 21) in Manhattan court by Johnny’s wife, Linda Ramone.

The lawsuit states that the contested film will be based on Leigh’s memoir, I Slept with Joey Ramone, but it does not specifically name Netflix. The 2021 announcement of Netflix’s upcoming film, which shares the same title and is based on the same book, was made possible by the “assistance of the Estate of Joey Ramone.”

Linda argues a film that would largely focus on the Ramones as a group cannot proceed without her approval because she and Leigh share ownership of the band’s intellectual property. The Ramones

Not because she is being stubborn, but rather because of the defendants’ disrespect for [Ramones] assets and their behavior and treatment of Ms. Ramone and her late husband, Linda’s lawyers wrote, “Ms. Ramone opposes to defendants’ attempt to construct a Ramones film without her input.” “It would be an insult to the band and its legacy to allow defendants to convey the Ramones’ authoritative story alone.”