I want to know what it was about the marketing for The Day the Earth Stopped that drove Fox over the edge and prompted them to hit The Asylum with a lawsuit. Nobody said anything when The Asylum released Alien vs. Hunter, or AVH as many tend to call it. And who could forget Exorcism: The Possession of Gail Bowers?
Why go after a company that had the balls to make a movie called Transmorphers? If anything, I think its an indicator of just how horrible experts predict the holiday box office numbers are going to be. If a common man can’t tell the difference between C. Thomas Howell and Keanu Reeves, well, I’d say that means one of two things. Either C. Thomas Howell has mass appeal that is going to waste or Keanu Reeves needs a new fucking agent.
It does appear Fox may have a legitimate grievance, at least, in the eyes of the law. It seems to boil down to the notion that The Asylum is intending to cause a “likelihood of confusion.” Who the hell wouldn’t be confused to see Judd Nelson’s name on a movie poster?
“They purposely try to copy the look and feel of the marketing,” says Loyola entertainment law professor Jay Dougherty, who handled title disputes when he was a studio lawyer. Plus, Fox’s “Day the Earth Stood Still” film is a remake, meaning the name might have acquired a measure of secondary meaning. “They might be sitting ducks,” he says.
If Fox has any luck with their lawsuit, this could mean disaster for Judd Nelson’s career.