Movies

CA Judge Rules That Studios Can Be Sued For Deceptive Movie Trailers

Published

1 year ago

December 22, 2022

Did you ever see the movie Yesterday (pictured above)? According to a plaintiff who is suing Universal, the trailer for that film featured actress Ana de Armas, but she never appears in the final cut. So they are taking it to court.

According to Entertainment Weekly, on Tuesday, a California judge allowed parts of the case to proceed because a trailer “constitutes commercial speech” and therefore not protected by the First Amendment. Basically, false advertising.

It all started in January when Paul Michael Rosza and Conor Woulfe began the lawsuit against Universal, claiming they rented the film Yesterday based on the assumption de Armas would be in it, but unbeknownst to them, the actress’ scenes were cut even though she is in the trailer.

Universal’s lawyers argued that a movie trailer is covered under the First Amendment because they are an “artistic, expressive work.”

U.S. District Judge Steven Wilson disagreed, and according to Deadline, he basically compared it to a bait and switch. “Universal is correct that trailers involve some creativity and editorial discretion, but this creativity does not outweigh the commercial nature of a trailer. At its core, a trailer is an advertisement designed to sell a movie by providing consumers with a preview of the movie,” Judge Wilson said.

He added, “the Court’s holding is limited to representations as to whether an actress or scene is in the movie, and nothing else.”

The case will now move to discovery in which both parties will exchange information and who and what they will present at the trial. this could potentially lead to a class action lawsuit.

Although not as blatant as the Yesterday scenario, some fans of the newest Halloween (also Universal) franchise were a bit upset that the iconic movie monster Michael Myers has less screen time in the final film Halloween Ends than the trailer or poster implies.

According to Digital Trends, Michael is on screen for 10 minutes and 55 seconds of the film’s 111-minute runtime. The rest is dedicated to a character barely present in the trailers. To be fair, in the original 1978 movie Myers only appears for 9 minutes and 37 seconds.

That scenario probably doesn’t fall under the same false advertising accusations of the Yesterday lawsuit, but it does give moviegoers pause to question whether or not a trailer is an apt representation of what intrigues them to buy a ticket.

In the age of the spoiler, studios are more cautious about revealing too much in a trailer so as to not give viewers enough to connect the dots, especially if there is a twist or a major reveal.

Throughout the years, trailers have often included scenes that aren’t in the theatrical cut of the film. But until now, no one has ever been litigious about it. This case might have widespread effects across the movie industry depending on how it is resolved.

What do you think? Should the trailer contain everything that’s in the movie?

*Header image credit: Universal/Jonathan Prime

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Movies

‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

Published

30 mins ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

^{High Desert Hell}

^{The Gemini Project}

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Movies

Fede Alvarez Teases ‘Alien: Romulus’ With RC Facehugger

Published

2 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Happy Alien Day! To celebrate director Fede Alvarez who is helming the latest sequel in the Alien franchise Alien: Romulus, got out his toy Facehugger in the SFX workshop. He posted his antics on Instagram with the following message:

“Playing with my favorite toy on set of #AlienRomulus last summer. RC Facehugger created by the amazing team from @wetaworkshop Happy #AlienDay everybody!”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Fede Alvarez (@iamfedealvarez)

To commemorate the 45th anniversary of Ridley Scott’s original Alien movie, April 26 2024 has been designated as Alien Day, with a re-release of the film hitting theaters for a limited time.

Alien: Romulus is the seventh film in the franchise and is currently in post-production with a scheduled theatrical release date of August 16, 2024.

In other news from the Alien universe, James Cameron has been pitching fans the boxed set of Aliens: Expanded a new documentary film, and a collection of merch associated with the movie with pre-sales ending on May 5.

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Movies

‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

Published

2 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

^{Happy Sad Confused}

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.