The lawsuit claims that in order to complete the film before its copyright expired, it did so during the actor’s strike.
It has been reported by The Los Angeles Times that the writer of the original version of the film Road House, which was directed by Patrick Swayze and released in 1989, has filed a lawsuit against Amazon, alleging that the remake of the film violates his copyright. An accusation has been made by screenwriter R. Lance Hill that Amazon and MGM Studios had used artificial intelligence to clone the voices of performers in the new film in order to complete it before the copyright expired.
Hill made the statement that he submitted a petition to the United States Copyright Office in November 2021 in order to reclaim the rights to his original script, which serves as the foundation for the new picture. According to the terms of the acquisition of MGM by Amazon Studios, the rights were owned by Amazon Studios at that time; however, they were scheduled to expire in November of 2023. Hill asserts that once that occurred, the rights would be returned to him in their entirety.
According to the lawsuit, Amazon Studios hurriedly proceeded with the production anyway in order to complete it before the period designated for copyright protection. Hill claims that Amazon employed artificial intelligence to “replicate the voices” of the actors who worked on the 2024 version because the company was unable to proceed due to the strike by the actors. This use was in violation of the provisions of the agreement that was reached between the union and major studios, which included Amazon.
The fact that Hill signed a “work-made-for-hire” arrangement with United Artists, the company that was responsible for the original production, makes the argument more problematic. In practice, this indicates that the studio that hired the writer would in fact be the owner of the work as well as the owner of the copyright to it. Hill, on the other hand, dismissed that as “boilerplate” that is routinely utilized in lease agreements.
Through the lawsuit, an attempt is being made to prevent the distribution of the picture, which is scheduled to make its debut at South by Southwest on March 8th, and then (controversially) go straight to streaming on Prime Video on March 21st.
Amazon has sent a statement to The Verge in which they refute the allegations, stating that “the studio expressly instructed the filmmakers to NOT use AI in this movie.” In addition, it was said that the use of artificial intelligence was limited to the initial versions of the films. It was then communicated to the filmmakers that they should eliminate any “AI or non-SAG AFTRA actors” from the final version. Additionally, it stated that the other charges are “completely and utterly false” and that it is of the opinion that its copyright on the original Road House has not yet expired.