By Aaron Miller-
A judge in the US has ruled that movie studios can be sued over false advertising in film trailers.
The ruling follows a lawsuit lodged against Universal Pictures by fans of renowned actress, Anna De Armas,(pictured) after the actor appeared in the trailer but not in the actual film.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson issued a ruling in a case involving “Yesterday,” the 2019 film about a world without the Beatles.
Two Ana de Armas fans filed a lawsuit in January, alleging that they had rented the movie after seeing de Armas in the trailer, only to discover that she was cut out of the final film.
Universal sought to have the lawsuit thrown out, arguing that movie trailers are entitled to broad protection under the First Amendment. The studio’s lawyers argued that a trailer is an “artistic, expressive work” that tells a three-minute story conveying the theme of the movie, and should thus be considered “non-commercial” speech.
Conor Woulfe, from Maryland, and Peter Michael Rosza, from San Diego County, California, launched the $5 million lawsuit against Universal Pictures after the paid to watch the film on Amazon’s prime, only to feel cheated after discovering that de Armas, who appeared in the trailer did not feature in the actual film at all.
The studio argued that the case should be thrown out because trailers are ‘artistic, expressive work’, US District Judge Stephen Wilson has rejected this.
“Universal is correct that trailers involve some creativity and editorial discretion, but this creativity does not outweigh the commercial nature of a trailer,” Judge Wilson wrote.
“At its core, a trailer is an advertisement designed to sell a movie by providing consumers with a preview of the movie.”
The studio’s lawyers argued: “What is obvious about trailers generally and the Yesterday trailer in particular: they are expressive works in their own right and may not be relegated to a class of ‘purely commercial’ speech that receives watered-down First Amendment protection.”
Judge Wilson ruled: “In sum, Universal has pointed to no non-commercial speech that could be intertwined with the trailer and, the inextricably intertwined exception to the commercial speech doctrine does not apply.
“Thus, because Plaintiffs have plausibly alleged that the trailer is false, commercial speech, Plaintiffs may proceed with their claims without offending the First Amendment.”
The movie, which was released back in 2019 follows musician Jack (played by Himesh Patel) who wakes up in a world where the Beatles never existed. He begins performing all of their best and most loved songs, leading him to becoming a superstar overnight.
De Armas was originally poised to star in the film as Roxanne, but was eventually aborted from the role after audiences disproved of the love triangle relationship between Jack, Ellie (played by Lily James) and Roxanne.
“That was a very traumatic cut, because she was brilliant in it. I mean really radiant. And [that] turned out to be the problem,” screenwriter Curtis told Cinemablend in 2019.
“I think the audience likes the story [about Ellie and Jack] and goes with that, and it works out well. What we’d originally done was had, I don’t want to describe it too much, but had Ana de Armas as a complicating factor when he arrived in LA for the first time. And I think the audience did not like the fact that his eyes even strayed.