This article originally appeared on Vulcan Post.
Earlier this year, some Singaporeans received letters from law firms representing Dallas Buyers Club LLC — the company that owns the rights to the movie with the same name. According to The Straits Times, parent company of Dallas Buyers Club LLC, Voltage Pictures, was scoping out pirates through their IP addresses for illegal download of the movie, and were being fined up to $50,000 in damages.
Now, the tables have turned on Voltage Pictures.
Yesterday, it was reported that the company is now in the midst of a tussle with Japanese corporation Toho, which filed a lawsuit seeking US$150,000 (about S$200,000) in damages from the former. Toho is accusing Voltage Pictures of illegally using their trademark and pictures of Godzilla to churn out a movie of their own called Colossal. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
Colossal is set to feature Anne Hathaway, and revolves around a huge monster terrorising the streets of Tokyo — if Godzilla had a twin, it’d probably look that way.
Spot any similarities?
In a recent report by Hollywood Reporter, Toho — which has produced over 20 Godzilla movies — stated in the complaint:
“The Director’s notes also make clear that Defendants have not only taken the Godzilla Character as their own, but that they also intend to use the Godzilla Character in precisely the same way that Toho used the character in its initial film — attacking Tokyo.”
So far, Voltage Pictures has not responded with what their next course of action will be, but with these movie giants battling it out, it will be interesting to see which one prevails.