The film’s production company, Alcon Entertainment, has sued Tesla, Elon Musk, and Warner Bros. Discovery for allegedly utilizing Blade Runner 2049 images without permission at the business’s highly publicized robotaxi launch event. The dispute revolves around the event, which took place at Warner Bros. Studios on October 10.
The lawsuit claims that Alcon specifically turned down Warner Bros.’ request to use content from the 2017 science fiction film for the occasion. Alcon claims that in spite of this denial, Warner Bros. and Tesla went ahead and created advertising images based on the movie using artificial intelligence without authorization. The lawsuit alleges that there has been substantial financial harm as a result of this misappropriation.
Alcon also accuses Tesla of “false endorsement,” suggesting that the event implied an unauthorized connection between the Blade Runner brand and Tesla’s robotaxi. This accusation comes as Warner Bros not only hosted the launch but also distributed Blade Runner 2049. The movie, a sequel to the 1982 cyberpunk classic, starred Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, and Ana de Armas, and won two Academy Awards.
Elon Musk has publicly expressed admiration for Blade Runner, once stating that the original film was a source of inspiration for Tesla’s Cybertruck. Alcon is currently working on a spinoff television series, Blade Runner 2099.
In a separate instance, Alex Proyas, the director of the 2004 film I, Robot, accused Musk of copying designs from his movie for Tesla’s humanoid machines and self-driving vehicles. The title of Tesla’s robotaxi event, We, Robot, a nod to Isaac Asimov’s work, further fueled Proyas’s claim, which he shared in a widely viewed social media post.