The Los Angeles Times is reporting that a new lawsuit claims during the SAG-AFTRA strike in 2023, Amazon used AI to replicate Road House actors’ voices.
Let’s dig in.
The ‘Road House’ Lawsuit
This all stems from a copyright claim coming from R. Lance Hill, who wrote the original Roadhouse, which starred Patrick Swayze. That movie was written for MGM, which later sold to Amazon.
Hill has been trying to get the rights back to the movie and claims that Amazon ignored him.
The copyright for the movie was going to be up soon, so Hill alleges that Amazon rushed to finish the movie during the strike.
According to the suit, Amazon “went so far as to take extreme measures to try to meet this November 10, 2023 deadline, at considerable additional cost, including by resorting to the use of AI (artificial intelligence).”
At the root of this is an argument on whether or not the original movie was written on spec, or was developed with the studio, which would affect the copyright reverting to the original writer.
Now, this will all play out in court.
This movie has been in the news recently after Doug Liman lamented the lack of a theatrical release.
We’ll keep you up to date as this plays out.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
Author: NFS Staff
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
