‘They did not want to be affiliated with Musk’: ‘Blade Runner’ producers sue Elon Musk for using AI to tie beloved movie to his ‘hate speech’

The producers of Blade Runner 2049 have come out swinging against Elon Musk, filing a lawsuit over Tesla’s unpermitted use of the film to promote its new product. Production company Alcon Entertainment — who worked on the 2017 sci-fi sequel — filed a lawsuit against the billionaire’s automotive company alleging that it used stills from the film to promote the Cybercab, Tesla’s new robotaxi. 

The lawsuit claims Musk and Tesla misappropriated Blade Runner 2049’s brand by feeding images from the movie, without permission, into an AI generator to create unlicensed promotional materials, which it then used at a Cybercab launch event earlier this month. 

The story touches on everything from AI to self-driving taxis and a sci-fi classic and reads like a future Black Mirror episode, but it gets juicier than even Charlie Brooker would have imagined. 

Alcon Entertainment said in the lawsuit that Blade Runner 2049 does not want to be affiliated with Musk because of his “extreme political and social views”, which could hinder the movie’s chances of securing potential distributing partners for a planned television adaptation. 

What are the extreme political views the producers are referencing, you might ask? Well, if you’ve followed Musk’s increasingly troublesome support of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, it could be anything from X’s seeming favoritism of the Republican candidate to his joke about assassinating Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris. 

Heck, even that bizarre dance Musk did at a recent Trump rally might’ve been cringe enough for Alcon Entertainment to distance itself from the billionaire altogether. The lawsuit in particular brings forward claims of copyright infringement and false endorsement, saying that a brand like Alcon Entertainment needs to “take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior… into account.”

The lawsuit describes his behavior as “sometimes veer[ing] into hate speech,” a sentiment I’m sure Olympic boxer Imane Khelif would agree with. As for the Tesla event the lawsuit claims infringed on Blade Runner 2049’s brand, reports suggest Musk appeared on stage by way of Cybercab (big douche energy), before showing an image of a man wearing a trenchcoat and overlooking an abandoned city bathed in misty, orange light. 

This, according to the lawsuit, “was clearly intended to read visually” as an actual image from Blade Runner 2049. It’s alleged that Musk created the replica image by feeding stills from the movie into an AI generator. The billionaire even referenced Blade Runner 2049 in his speech at the Cybercab launch event, and reportedly said to those involved that he wanted to associate the product with the film.

Alcon Entertainment is looking to reach an agreement with Musk and Tesla in the lawsuit, but the details of what that agreement entails have not yet been revealed. Perhaps, by some master stroke, the producers can convince Musk to delete his X page, step away from politics, and move to a faraway island where he can luxuriate in his riches without access to the internet.

My social media algorithm would certainly be thankful. Here’s hoping Musk hasn’t done too much damage to Blade Runner 2099, the in-development TV entry into the franchise.