Thanos remains the biggest threat the MCU has ever faced, and has gone down in cinematic history as an all-time great bad guy. Even though he was eventually reduced to dust in Avengers: Endgame, he’s been causing trouble in courtrooms for years, with the galactic tyrant at the center of complex litigation involving the animation software used to create him.
Disney had been accused by software company Rearden of using its MOVA Contour tech, which is used for facial capture of actors, and was utilized to map Josh Brolin’s Thanos performance to the 3D model. Rearden has been arguing that Chinese VFX company DD3 used MOVA Contour on multiple MCU movies featuring Thanos without a license, and was seeking huge damages.
For now, the House of Mouse has come out on top. On Feb. 21, federal judge dismissed Rearden’s suit, and found that there was insufficient evidence that MOVA Contour “did the majority of the work” on Thanos, and that the Marvel Studios creative team are to be considered “the authors of the results of the facial motion capture.”
Even so, The Hollywood Reporter says that despite this ruling, Disney may still face a financial penalty for Infinity War and Endgame (and Beauty and the Beast) due to other ongoing litigation with Rearden. Those movies add up to a colossal $6 billion in box office revenue, so there’s still a lot of money on the table.
The buck doesn’t stop with Disney and Marvel either, as Rearden has also sued Fox, Paramount and other studios for misuse of its software. With this much at stake (and legal teams making bank on costs), expect this legal infinity war to rumble on for some time yet.
Published: Feb 23, 2023 03:27 am