Two fans of Ana de Armas are suing Universal, alleging they were duped into renting the 2019 movie Yesterday because the actress appeared in the trailer but not the final cut of the film.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Michael Rosza, of California, and Conor Woulfe, of Maryland, claim they each paid $3.99 to watch Yesterday on Amazon Prime after they checked out the trailer for the 2019 movie, which featured de Armas, however, they later discovered that the actress' scenes had been removed from the Beatles-inspired film.
As a result of this revelation, the two film fans are seeking to recoup at least $5m in compensation on behalf of the affected viewers in their two home states who paid to watch Yesterday, claiming that Universal Pictures used de Armas' "fame, radiance and brilliance" to promote the film and attract sales by including her scenes in the trailer.
“Although Defendant included the scenes with Ms. de Armas in the movie trailer advertisements, for the purposes of promoting Yesterday and enticing film sales and rentals, Ms. de Armas is not and was never in the publicly released version of the movie," states the complaint, which was filed in California federal court on January 21, 2022.
Yesterday imagines a world where the Beatles never existed as Jack Malik, a struggling singer-songwriter, wakes up from an accident to find he's the only person on Earth who remembers the iconic Liverpool band. De Armas was initially cast as a love interest for Malik but had her scenes cut because audiences didn't like that aspect of the storyline, per BBC.
"Unable to rely on fame of the actors playing Jack Malik or Ellie to maximize ticket and movie sales and rentals, Defendant consequently used Ms. de Armas' fame, radiance and brilliance to promote the film by including her scenes in the movie trailers advertising Yesterday," reads the lawsuit, which also references a song that was included in the trailer but cut from the film.
Although de Armas didn't make an appearance in Yesterday, she recently starred as CIA agent Paloma in Cary Joji Fukunaga's James Bond movie No Time to Die. The film earned an estimated $56 million at the US box office in its opening weekend and surpassed $300 million globally, with the fifth-best US opening during the COVID-19 pandemic era.
De Armas is also reportedly in talks to play the lead role in the John Wick spinoff, Ballerina, which will centre around a young female assassin who is motivated to seek out the people responsible for killing her family and bring them to justice. The film is set to be directed by Les Wiseman from a script by Shay Hatten but few other details are known at this time.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.
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According to The Hollywood Reporter, Michael Rosza, of California, and Conor Woulfe, of Maryland, claim they each paid $3.99 to watch Yesterday on Amazon Prime after they checked out the trailer for the 2019 movie, which featured de Armas, however, they later discovered that the actress' scenes had been removed from the Beatles-inspired film.
As a result of this revelation, the two film fans are seeking to recoup at least $5m in compensation on behalf of the affected viewers in their two home states who paid to watch Yesterday, claiming that Universal Pictures used de Armas' "fame, radiance and brilliance" to promote the film and attract sales by including her scenes in the trailer.
“Although Defendant included the scenes with Ms. de Armas in the movie trailer advertisements, for the purposes of promoting Yesterday and enticing film sales and rentals, Ms. de Armas is not and was never in the publicly released version of the movie," states the complaint, which was filed in California federal court on January 21, 2022.
Yesterday imagines a world where the Beatles never existed as Jack Malik, a struggling singer-songwriter, wakes up from an accident to find he's the only person on Earth who remembers the iconic Liverpool band. De Armas was initially cast as a love interest for Malik but had her scenes cut because audiences didn't like that aspect of the storyline, per BBC.
"Unable to rely on fame of the actors playing Jack Malik or Ellie to maximize ticket and movie sales and rentals, Defendant consequently used Ms. de Armas' fame, radiance and brilliance to promote the film by including her scenes in the movie trailers advertising Yesterday," reads the lawsuit, which also references a song that was included in the trailer but cut from the film.
Although de Armas didn't make an appearance in Yesterday, she recently starred as CIA agent Paloma in Cary Joji Fukunaga's James Bond movie No Time to Die. The film earned an estimated $56 million at the US box office in its opening weekend and surpassed $300 million globally, with the fifth-best US opening during the COVID-19 pandemic era.
De Armas is also reportedly in talks to play the lead role in the John Wick spinoff, Ballerina, which will centre around a young female assassin who is motivated to seek out the people responsible for killing her family and bring them to justice. The film is set to be directed by Les Wiseman from a script by Shay Hatten but few other details are known at this time.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.
Continue reading...