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.
9 comments
Never heard of this, but The Day The Earth Stood Still looks so bad! The took one of my favorite movies as a kid and turned it in to a dumb action movie.
I think Fox should hit C. Thomas Howell where he lives and do a remake of Soul Man starring Keanu Reeves.
"If Fox has any luck with their lawsuit, this could mean disaster for Judd Nelson's career." I loled.
I work at a Blockbuster and oddly enough people actually do try to rent these, besides me. Sometimes I'll try to explain to people renting 'War Of The Worlds 2' that regardless of the fact we have 20 copies that the studio isn't reputable for quality, also that '100 Million BC', '30,000 Leagues Under The Sea', and 'I Am Omega' aren't what they think they are….
I suggest everyone give at least Transmorphers a shot though. Half the movie's out of sync, the special effects were never finished, and it advertises a director's commentary and has an option for it but it doesn't work and if you go to the IMDB page you'll learn the director disowned it and has never seen it. Plus there's my favorite part, there's one character they casted as a woman but wrote as a man but then never adapted the script to that so she's now a lesbian and is always referred to as 'sir'.
my career is in total ruin now…damn
Of all the studios to do this, it's FOX, that has made some of the worst movies for the majority of a decade. No wonder they don't want to be confused with Asylum.
I'm gonna go rent Transmorphers right now.
Don't bother, JB Moore. Just read the Foywonder's review of it on Dread Central. That's far more entertaining than the movie itself.
Gotta give the Asylum props for their cover art though. Does the "TRICK"!
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