Blade Runner 2049 Producers Sue Elon Musk Over Robotaxi Images

The producers of the film Blade Runner 2049 have filed a lawsuit against entrepreneur Elon Musk for the unauthorized use of images from the science fiction movie to promote Tesla’s new 'robotaxi'. Musk is the largest shareholder and CEO of Tesla.

Alcon Entertainment, the production company behind Blade Runner 2049, initiated the lawsuit in a federal court in California, claiming that Musk and his electric vehicle company improperly used the film’s branding during a promotional event for their autonomous car held earlier this month in Los Angeles.

The lawsuit also names Warner Bros. and Discovery as defendants, alleging that Alcon had previously denied a request from Musk and these companies to use images from Blade Runner 2049 for a marketing event that took place on October 10 at Warner's studio.

According to the complaint, the alleged use of the film's images occurred at this event despite the producer's refusal. While the presentation did not include exact visuals from the film directed by Denis Villeneuve, it showcased "images created by artificial intelligence (AI) that mirrored scenes" from the Oscar-winning movie.

The lawsuit describes the use of AI-generated images as a "bad faith tactic that was intentionally malicious", aimed at making the event "more appealing to a global audience (...) to further sell Teslas".

Alcon Entertainment highlighted it had denied Musk's request to use images from the film due to his "highly politicized, whimsical, and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes leads to hate speech," as stated in the complaint.

Additionally, the production company mentioned it is in negotiations with other automotive brands for a collaboration on an upcoming Amazon television series, Blade Runner 2099, and did not want anything to interfere with these discussions, according to reports from The New York Times.

Blade Runner 2049, a sequel to the 1982 film Blade Runner, was financed and produced by Alcon and released by Warner Bros. in 2017. The film features the replicant K, played by Ryan Gosling, a human-like android living in a post-apocalyptic United States who drives a fully autonomous vehicle equipped with artificial intelligence.

lawsuit, BladeRunner2049, ElonMusk