Universal Sues Global Asylum Over ‘American Battleship;’ Asylum Thanks Universal For Publicity
One starsTaylor KitschandRihannaas Naval Officers trying to save the world from aliens. The other starsMario Van PeeblesandCarl Weathersas Naval Officers trying to save the world from aliens. If those two descriptions sound somewhat interchangeable to you, you aren’t alone. The company behind the former, which obviously is Universal’s upcomingmega-budget blockbusterBattleship, is suing Global Asylum, the company behind the latter, a film calledAmerican Battleship. One will be released on thousands of screens May 18. The other will hope to fool thousands of people into believing its the former on DVD shelves May 22. Read more about the situation below.
TMZexclusively broke the news of the lawsuit, which claimsGlobal Asylumis trying to piggyback off Universal’s ultra-pricey marketing push forBattleship. They also claimAmerican Battleshipinfringes on their copyright to the boardgameBattleship, which the Universal film is based on. There’s certainly much more to it (the full lawsuit can beread here) but that’s the jist.
Global Asylum responded to Universal’s claim with the following statement found onDeadline:
The Global Asylum has promoted the feature filmAmerican Battleshipfor nearly a year while Universal raised no concerns. The timing of Universal’s recently filed lawsuit coincides with mixed reviews of its big-budget film,Battleship— the first movie based on a board game sinceClue. Looking for a scapegoat, or more publicity, for its pending box-office disaster, the executives at Universal filed this lawsuit in fear of a repeat of the box office flop,John Carter of Mars. The Universal action is wholly without merit and we will vigorously defend their claims in Court. Nonetheless, we appreciate the publicity.
Didn’t Disney releaseJohn Carter? That’s a weird mistake to make. I digress.
Battleshipis already a monster international hit for Universal, even before it opens on U.S. screens, so it makes little sense they’d go out of their way to try and recoup funds potentially lost if the movie bombs here from a relatively tiny company like Global Asylum. Not to mention Global Asylum makes their money doing exactly this: releasing films that sound and look just like huge Hollywood blockbuster in hopes someone will pick it up on the cheap at Wal-Mart or rent it by mistake on Netflix. They’re the company behindParanormal Entity, Titanic II, 2012: Ice Age, The Terminators, TransmorphersandBattle Of Los Angelesnot to be confused with, well, you get it.
What do you think happens with this case? Will Global Asylum buckle and pay off Universal? Or does Global Asylum have some sort of legal loophole that allows them to keep doing this?
