One of the production companies behind Blade Runner 2049 has sued Tesla and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) over their alleged use of the film in AI imagery.
In an October 21st lawsuit filed in California federal court, LA-based Alcon Entertainment said Tesla misappropriated the acclaimed 2017 WBD sci-fi film’s brand to promote its robotaxi during its ‘We, Robot’ event on October 10th. Specifically, the suit alleges that “subsequent to Alcon denying any use of said images,” Tesla nonetheless still used “AI-created images mirroring scenes from Blade Runner 2049, including one featuring a Ryan Gosling [who stars in the film as K] look-alike.” Alcon argues that this is “a bad-faith and intentionally malicious gambit” to make the event “more attractive to a global audience and to misappropriate the Blade Runner 2049 brand to help sell Teslas.”
Alcon says it doesn’t want to be affiliated with Tesla due to “problematic” CEO and co-founder Elon Musk’s “extreme political and social views,” which it says will harm its efforts to form potential partnerships with other companies on its upcoming Blade Runner 2049 sequel series, Blade Runner 2099. The series is currently in production for Prime Video and stars Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once) and Hunter Schafer (Euphoria).
The suit also names WBD for allegedly facilitating the Tesla partnership. “Any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account,” states the complaint.
Alcon is seeking an injunction blocking Musk, Tesla, WBD and “anyone working in concert with them from further copying, displaying, distributing, selling or offering to sell ‘BR2049’ or protectible elements thereof in connection with Tesla or Musk, or making derivative works thereof for such purposes” as well as unspecified monetary damages. Tesla and WBD have yet to comment on the lawsuit.
Notably, Alcon is the latest company to attempt to distance itself from Musk. In the past year, many advertisers, including Disney and Apple, have pulled advertising from Musk’s X (Twitter) due to the rise in hate speech his policies have helped foster on the platform. In response, Musk said “don’t advertise [on X]” to these companies while telling them to “go f*** yourself.” Despite that, Musk filed a lawsuit against these former advertisers, alleging an “illegal” boycott of X.
It remains to be seen what will come out of either Alcon or X’s respective lawsuits. A copy of Alcon’s lawsuit, via Variety, can be viewed here.
Image credit: Warner Bros.
Via: Variety
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