By Whatever happened to the legal skirmish that went down between Battle: Los Angeles and the now-released Skyline? I don’t know how much this got around, but sometime after Comic-Con featured trailers and panels for each film, it became an issue that the visual effects team that developed Skyline was hired on Battle: LA, earlier than the gestation of Skyline, and made aware of the film’s secrets. Did this prompt them to crank out a new film on the cheap to cut off their employer’s release date?
As reported by Deadline at the time, Hydraulx Filmz was paid millions to develop FX for Battle: LA and had access to the script, concept art, and assets used for the making of that film. Though it has been suggested that Sony has been aware of the issue, it was only just this Fall that their legal team attempted to dislodge Skyline from its release date, the main argument being that Sony wasn’t informed of their intentions when Hydraulx was being kept current on all ends of their bigger budget and more carefully crafted production.
But let’s face it, contrary to what was said by Battle: LA’s star Aaron Eckhart,…
Whatever happened to the legal skirmish that went down between Battle: Los Angeles and the now-released Skyline? I don’t know how much this got around, but sometime after Comic-Con featured trailers and panels for each film, it became an issue that the visual effects team that developed Skyline was hired on Battle: LA, earlier than the gestation of Skyline, and made aware of the film’s secrets. Did this prompt them to crank out a new film on the cheap to cut off their employer's release date?
As reported by Deadline at the time, Hydraulx Filmz was paid millions to develop FX for Battle: LA and had access to the script, concept art, and assets used for the making of that film. Though it has been suggested that Sony has been aware of the issue, it was only just this Fall that their legal team attempted to dislodge Skyline from its release date, the main argument being that Sony wasn’t informed of their intentions when Hydraulx was being kept current on all ends of their bigger budget and more carefully crafted production.
But let’s face it, contrary to what was said by Battle: LA’s star Aaron Eckhart, this is far from the first urban combat alien invasion film, one which makes the audience feel as if they’re experiencing it alongside the event. Handheld combat footage camerawork has been seen in the streets District 9 and Cloverfield, and machine guns pelting ETs away is only one extra ingredient from the Cruise/Gibson War of the Worlds and Signs recipe.
The argument here may hold water if digital effects from Skyline can be directly connected to those of Battle: Los Angeles. Skyline is now here (right on time) so nobody at Sony seems to have backed the complaint with clear evidence. Still, I doubt this is the last we’ve seen of blue alien ships versus brown alien ships. I’m not aware of any official legal proceedings but these things take time.
Hopefully the audience of Skyline won’t be turned off by the genre before 2011, because the Battle: Los Angeles trailer has me far more excited than I ever was for its “predecessor.” Maybe it’s the ability to see actual actors in its trailer that gives it more credibility on my scale. Great music, too.
[Via Deadline]