The production company behind Blade Runner 2049 sued Elon Musk for copyright infringement on Monday, accusing him of using still images from their 2017 sci-fi opus to create unlicensed promotional materials for Tesla’s new self-driving “robotaxi.”
Alcon Entertainment’s lawsuit, filed in California federal court, also names Tesla and Warner Bros. Discovery as defendants. The complaint alleges that, just hours before Tesla was set to unveil its “robotaxi“ at Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio lot, Musk and his car company approached the company to request permission to use “one of the most iconic images” from Blade Runner 2049 during the event.
The request was denied, according to the lawsuit, which said that Alcon executives balked at being “affiliated in any way with Tesla, Musk or any Musk-owned company” over his “extreme political and social views.”
The complaint goes on to explain: “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. Alcon did not want BR2049 to be affiliated with Musk.”
Musk was made aware that he’d been refused permission, it says. “He did it anyway.”
The Oct. 10 event, We, Robot, was a presentation of the Cybercab, Tesla’s “dedicated robotaxi” that Musk said he wants to have on roads by 2027. The demonstration featured “A.I.-created images mirroring scenes from ‘Blade Runner 2049,’ including one featuring a Ryan Gosling look-alike,” according to the lawsuit.
Alcon owns the copyright to Blade Runner 2049. Though Warner Bros. Discovery was the company’s domestic distributor of Denis Villeneuve’s epic, and it has limited licensing rights, it did not have clearance to use the film’s materials for We, Robot, which was livestreamed internationally.
In a video of the event, Musk can be heard directly referencing the movie in his remarks. “You know, I love Blade Runner, but I don’t know if we want that future,” he says. “I believe we want that duster he’s wearing, but not the, uh, not the bleak apocalypse.”
Alleging that Musk “misappropriate[d] the ‘Blade Runner 2049’ brand to help sell Teslas,” Alcon is accusing him and his co-defendants of direct copyright infringement, vicarious copyright infringement and contributory copyright infringement, and false endorsement. The company is seeking unspecified damages and a court order prohibiting Tesla from further using the allegedly AI-generated images at issue.
The lawsuit was first reported by The New York Times, which could not immediately reach Musk, Tesla, or Warner Bros. Discovery for comment.
