Why are ‘Blade Runner 2049’ producers suing Elon Musk?

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” 

Timeless words from Oscar Wilde, who would doubtlessly be chuckling away to himself had he had the misfortune of meeting Elon Musk.  

Last week, Musk drew the ire of Alex Proyas, the director of the 2004 sci-fi film I, Robot, who accused the businessman-turned-troll of copying his designs for humanoid machines and self-driving vehicles.  

“Hey Elon, can I have my designs back please,” Proyas wrote in a post on X which has been viewed more than eight million times at the time of writing.  

Now, it seems that Musk has been stealing some of his ideas from another Hollywood blockbuster: Blade Runner 2049, the sequel to the 1982 classic Blade Runner, which portrays a dystopian future featuring autonomous vehicles powered by AI.

The production company behind Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 filed a lawsuit Monday against Musk, Tesla and Warner Bros. Discovery, accusing them of copyright infringement while promoting a new self-driving car. 

In its lawsuit, Alcon Entertainment says Musk used AI-generated imagery mirroring scenes from its 2017 sci-fi film while presenting Tesla’s new autonomous Robotaxi at a marketing event earlier this month. And the snag is that producers had denied his request to do so.

“He did it anyway,” the suit alleges, adding that the company do not want to be linked to Musk or his companies.

“Any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicised, capricious and arbitrary behaviour, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account,” it added.

Indeed, the billionaire founder of Tesla and owner of X has endorsed Donald Trump, committed at least $70 million (€64,5m) to help Trump get back to the White House, has appeared alongside him at a rally this month, and has even pledged to give away $1 million (approx. €921,000) a day to voters who sign his political action committee’s petition – in what some feel is election interference.

What happened?

On 10 October, Musk launched Tesla’s fully autonomous Robotaxi on the Warner Bros. Discovery lot in Burbank, California.

During Musk’s globally livestreamed presentation, a scene featured AI-generated footage of a man in a long trench coat exploring the ruins of Las Vegas. The suit alleges that this is directly ripped from a scene in Blade Runner 2049 featuring actor Ryan Gosling.

The day before the launch, Warner Bros. Discovery had contacted Alcon to request the use of clips from Blade Runner 2049 for Tesla’s presentation. Alcon Co-CEO Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson “refused WBD’s request, objecting to their film being affiliated in any way with Tesla, Musk or any Musk-owned company,” according to the company. 

That did not stop Musk.  

The suit alleges that it “exuded an odor of thinly contrived excuse to link Tesla’s cybercab to strong Hollywood brands at a time when Tesla and Musk are on the outs with Hollywood.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Musk even referenced the film when giving his remarks: “You know, I love ‘Blade Runner,’ but I don’t know if we want that future. I believe we want that duster he’s wearing, but not the bleak apocalypse.”

Alcon Entertainment believe this unauthorised association is harmful to their business and their suit seeks an injunction blocking Musk, Tesla, WBD and “anyone working in concert with them from further copying, displaying, distributing, selling or offering to sell ‘BR2049’ or protectible elements thereof in connection with Tesla or Musk, or making derivative works thereof for such purposes.”

The monetary damages are unspecified. However, “the financial magnitude of the misappropriation here was substantial,” the lawsuit says.

“Alcon has spent decades and hundreds of millions of dollars building the ‘BR2049’ brand into the famous mark that it now is. Prior actual ‘BR2049’ contracts linking automotive brands to the Picture have had dollar price tags in the eight figures.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Tesla has not publicly responded to the lawsuit yet.