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Elon Musk has found himself on the receiving end of plenty of lawsuits in recent years, and he can add one more to the pile after drawing the ire of the production company that’s accused him of ripping off Blade Runner 2049 to drum up hype for the Tesla Robotaxi.
I don’t think it would be a huge stretch to suggest it’s easier to get away with various misdeeds when you have billions of dollars at your disposal, and Elon Musk has not been shy about harnessing the “It’s easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission” approach while taking advantage of the perks that come with being one of the richest people on the planet.
The divisive entrepreneur has largely hemorrhaged the goodwill he was able to amass when he positioned himself as the real-life version of Tony Stark in the 2010s thanks to his decision to get increasingly political, but he’s still doing what he can to cling to that reputation with his ongoing duties as the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.
Earlier this month, Musk was front and center at the “We, Robot” event Tesla hosted in Texas to drum up some hype for two autonomous vehicles dubbed the “Robotaxi” and “Robovan” that led to the director of I, Robot calling out the company for drawing some not-so-subtle inspiration from the 2004 movie starring Will Smith.
However, the decision to pay homage to another movie has now sparked a lawsuit.
According to The New York Times, Alcon Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based production company founded in 1997, is suing Musk and Tesla in federal court for allegedly ignoring its decision to turn down the company’s request to incorporate imagery from Blade Runner 2049 into the aforementioned event.
The filing asserts Alcon explicitly rejected a proposal to use footage from the 2017 follow-up to Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic at the event where Musk explicitly referenced the franchise during a presentation that included an A.I.-generated photo featuring a person bearing an uncanny resemblance to Ryan Gosling’s character in the film (it can be seen at the 45-second mark in the following video).
The lawsuit accuses Musk and Tesla of copyright infringement and false endorsement and seeks to prevent them from committing similar infractions in the future on top of unspecified monetary damages.