Elon Musk sued by 'Blade Runner 2049' producers over look-alike image

When Elon Musk unveiled Tesla’s long-awaited robotaxi at a movie studio this month, he presented an image of a person standing in an orange desert looking toward demolished buildings — similar to an iconic shot from the movie “Blade Runner 2049.”

“I love Blade Runner, but, uh, I don’t know if we want that future,” Musk said. “I think we want that duster [coat] he’s wearing, but, uh, but not the bleak apocalypse. We want to have a fun, exciting future.”

Now the studio that produced “Blade Runner 2049” is suing Musk and Tesla for copyright infringement.

Alcon Entertainment said in a lawsuit Monday that Tesla asked to use an image from the 2017 science fiction movie for its event, but the studio refused. Tesla then created an artificial intelligence image that looked similar to one from the movie, the lawsuit alleges.

In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Alcon Entertainment asks Tesla to pay damages and profits it has made from using the look-alike image. Although Tesla is not yet selling its robotic taxis, called the Cybercab, Alcon argues the image from the launch event could bolster the carmaker’s brand.

“This was clearly all a bad faith and intentionally malicious gambit by Defendants to make the otherwise stilted and stiff content of the … event more attractive to the global audience and to misappropriate BR2049’s brand to help sell Teslas,” the lawsuit says.

Tesla and Warner Bros. Discovery, which hosted the event and is named as a defendant, did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. Although Warner Bros. distributed “Blade Runner 2049” in the United States and Canada, Alcon Entertainment’s lawsuit says the media company does not own the movie’s copyright.

Replying to a post on X about the lawsuit, Musk wrote Tuesday: “That movie sucked.”

A publicist for the Angellotti Company, a public relations firm that represents Alcon Entertainment, wrote in an email to The Washington Post that the studio “is confident in the allegations in its Complaint and looks forward to the legal process.”

“Blade Runner 2049,” the sequel to the 1982 classic “Blade Runner,” is primarily set in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles and follows K, a police officer played by Ryan Gosling, as he tracks down Rick Deckard, the protagonist of the 1982 movie.

A shot from the movie and its trailer shows K exiting his flying vehicle, surrounded by orange haze and shattered infrastructure, as he walks toward the Las Vegas cityscape. The scene precedes K’s meeting with Deckard.

“It immediately evokes BR2049 and everything the Picture stands for, without any words or other references,” Alcon Entertainment’s lawsuit says.

Tesla requested to use that image for the Oct. 10 unveiling of its robotaxi in Burbank, Calif., according to the lawsuit. Alcon Entertainment said it declined, wanting to avoid an affiliation with “any Musk company.”

“Any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account,” the lawsuit says.

Musk has been accused of allowing false and misleading claims to spread on X, which the multibillionaire owns. Musk announced on Saturday that he would distribute $1 million daily in a lottery for swing-state voters who sign a petition for the super PAC he created to campaign for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump — a vow that legal experts said federal law might prohibit.

At the Cybercab’s unveiling, Musk rode in the robotaxi around the movie studio before beginning his presentation. He showed the image of the person standing in the orange desert — with a similar camera angle as the movie scene — for about 11 seconds.

He said he wanted the future to be different from Blade Runner’s, with useful technology, like the robotaxi that Tesla says is fully autonomous. Musk said the vehicle, which won’t have a steering wheel or pedals, will “probably” be in production in 2026.

A live stream of the unveiling has received more than 10 million views on X.

Alcon Entertainment said the value of an affiliation with “Blade Runner 2049” is at least $100,000. The studio said it could also be harmed financially in another way: It’s discussing partnerships with other car companies for an upcoming TV series, “Blade Runner 2099,” and Tesla’s actions are “likely to cause confusion among Alcon’s potential brand partner customers.”

“The false affiliation between BR2049 and Tesla is irreparably entangled in the global media tapestry,” the lawsuit said.

In addition to damages and profits, Alcon Entertainment also requested attorneys’ fees and an injunction that prevents Tesla from using elements of “Blade Runner 2049.”

Last week, Alex Proyas, who directed the 2004 movie “I, Robot,” accused Musk’s robotaxi event of also stealing his movie’s imagery, writing on X: “Hey Elon, Can I have my designs back please?”