Two alien flicks are releasing in late 2010/early 2011, but Battle: Los Angeles is about to wage war on a similarly extraterrestrial indie flick.
Battle: Los Angeles – Revolves around a Marine staff sergeant (Eckhart) and his new platoon’s battle against an alien invasion on the streets of Los Angeles. The movie is presented as an intense real-time war movie from the perspective of the Marines. It has been described by some as “Black Hawk Down meets Independence Day”. It will be a live-action drama, showcasing the United States Marines attempting to defeat an alien invasion of planet Earth.
Skyline – After a night of partying, a group of friends are distracted when beams of light awaken everyone in Los Angeles, that then attracts every person like a moth to a flame. As the night progresses, they soon discover that once addicted to the light you vanish into thin air, as well as extraterrestrial forces that later begin to swallow the entire human race.
Both corners ready? Now Fight!
Sony Pictures Entertainment has their gaggle of lawyers investigating legal action against Skyline filmmakers Greg and Colin Strause. The issue is that the Strause brothers own a special effects company named Hydraulx and they were hired to do visual effects work on Battle: Los Angeles — and they forgot to mention they were working on their own alien invasion film at the same time.
While many are quick to view this as a “David Vs. Goliath” tale of two filmmakers being threatened by a giant corporation, things aren’t so clear cut. As a Deadline article points out, the Strause brothers were hired for the Battle: Los Angeles job and considered for directorial duties — meaning they had access to storyboards, the script, and all kinds of other goodies that they could have incorporated into their own film or used to enhance what they were doing. At best, there seems to be a definite conflict of interest thing happening here.
Of course, what seems to really have Sony up in arms is that Universal is set to release Skyline — which garnered a lot of attention at Comic-Con — on November 12th, several months ahead of Sony’s much larger project. Sony could simply be rattling its legal saber to convince Skyline to shift to a later release date so as not to interfere with Battle: Los Angeles’ debut.
Ay Ay Ay. This looks bad on paper. I mean, if the Strause brothers were in deed, hired to work on Battle: LA, then this looks really bad. And they were considered to direct it? That’s worse. Now of course, the plot and the way both films are told/filmed might probably differ. But if this is true, it sounds to me that the Strause Brothers are in trouble. Could this be a Dante’s Peak/Volcano style rematch?
Can two films come out 4 months apart, with almost the same plot/story? Does Sony have a case here? What do you think will happen?
