'Blade Runner 2049' producer sues Tesla, Warner Bros over AI images

Movie and television studio Alcon Entertainment on Monday sued Tesla TSLA.O and Warner Bros Discovery WBD.O over claims they used images tied to the film “Blade Runner 2049” to promote Tesla's new autonomous cybercab.

Alcon’s California federal lawsuit alleged violations of U.S. copyright law and accused Tesla of “false endorsement” for suggesting a relationship between Alcon and the Elon Musk-owned electric vehicle maker.

“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,” the lawsuit said.

Tesla and Warner Bros did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Warner Bros was Alcon’s distributor for "Blade Runner 2049", which won two 2018 Academy Awards and starred Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford in the highly anticipated sequel to the 1982 cult classic Blade Runner.

Blade Runner 2049IMDb

Alcon said it had refused Warner Bros' request to use images from the firm for Tesla’s October 10 live-streamed cyber cab unveiling. The lawsuit said Tesla then used images created with artificial intelligence that mirrored the movie for its cyber cab event.

In a statement, Alcon said the defendants’ “conduct is likely to confuse Alcon’s ‘Blade Runner’ brand partner customers, including those it is partnering with for its upcoming ‘Blade Runner 2099’ series for Amazon Prime.”

The lawsuit did not name specific damages but said Alcon had spent hundreds of millions of dollars building the Blade Runner 2049 brand, and said the “financial magnitude of the misappropriation here was substantial."

(Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by David Bario and David Gregorio)