Summary
A lawsuit filed against Universal over a deceptive trailer for “Yesterday” was dismissed by a judge who called it “self-harm.” The plaintiffs claimed that Ana de Armas’ appearance in the trailer deceived them because she was cut from the final cut of the film, but the court ruled that further changes to their complaint would be useless. This lawsuit raises questions about viewers’ rights to honest marketing, but the judge ultimately decided the deception was not serious enough to be upheld in court.
Judge formally dismisses lawsuit over misleading ‘Yesterday’ trailer. Yesterday is a 2019 film that tells the story of Jack (Himesh Patel), a struggling musician who wakes up one day to find himself in an alternate reality where The Beatles never existed and he is the only one who remembers their songs. Unsure what to do, Jack makes a risky decision by performing the quartet’s famous songs and passing them off as his own in order to make a career in music.
Four years after the film’s release, a lawsuit was dismissed over a deceptive trailer that featured Ana de Armas but whose scenes were cut in the final cut. U.S. District Judge Steven Wilson found flaws in a “non-compliance” lawsuit filed by plaintiffs Paul Michael Rosa and Conor Wolfe against Universal, Deadline reports. Wilson later supported Universal’s defense, arguing that it was “self-inflicted”, dropping the case entirely. Here is Wilson’s statement:
“In each previous refusal, the court clearly identified the pitfalls of the complaint and allowed subsequent amendments. However, it is now clear to the court that further changes are pointless. Thus, expulsion does not provide for the possibility of changing the complaint. This is the third time the plaintiffs amend their complaint and it will be the last time.”
Explanation of the lawsuit over the trailer for “Yesterday” with Ana De Armas
This bizarre yesterday-related lawsuit first surfaced in 2021. Inspired by a trailer showing the brief moment when De Armas catches the attention of lead actor Jack, Rose and Wolfe rented the film from Amazon Prime Videos. Unhappy that De Armas did not appear in the final cut of Yesterday, Rosa and Wolf filed a $5 million lawsuit against Universal, alleging that the studio’s marketing was “false, misleading and fraudulent”.
Rosa and Wulf did not give up. As Wilson mentions in his statement, Rosa and Wolf changed their demands even after the court rejected them several times. In one such 2022 edit, Wolfe even attempted to claim “Google flaws” after next renting a movie from Google Play. Regarding this change, the judge said: “Author Wolf did not provide any explanation as to why he believed that the version of Yesterday they accessed on Google Play would be different from the version of the movie they accessed on Amazon. “.
From the looks of it, Rosa and Wolfe’s lawsuit will eventually be dismissed due to this latest rejection. Despite the outlandish nature of this lawsuit, Yesterday’s lawsuit raises interesting questions about what right the public has to fair marketing. De Armas can be considered a blockbuster star, at least she was at the time of the filing of the lawsuit in 2021 compared to other actors in the film. Thus, the appearance of De Armas in a later cut role may deceive a potential viewer of “Yesterday”, although, much to the annoyance of Rose and Wolfe, this is not enough to argue in court.
Source: Timing