Universal sues Global Asylum over American Battleship,Asylum thanks them for free publicity

Blockbusters and summer tent-poles are a common feature now in the world of movies, with their massive budgets and big name stars usually raking in tons of cash.

Usually. Of course everyone wants a piece of that pie, and unless you have a door wedged firmly in place for the merchandising meeting,none of that green is coming your way.

Or you could go flat out with the plagiarism,and piggy-back on said film, with a mockbuster of your own. Except Universal Pictures isn’t too happy with Global Asylum and their latest project, so they’re suing the pants off of them.While the bigger budgeted Battleship stars Liam Neeson at his most growly, along with Taylor Kitsch and Rihanna for some unknown reason, Asylum has put together a who’s available list of once-stars, in the form of Mario “Solo” Van Peebles, and Carl “It’s all in the hips” Weathers, as crewmen on the only American battleship available, that can stop an alien invasion.

So of course, Universal has had an issue with that film suddenly, considering that reviews towards their own movie have been less than enthusiastic so far.

While Battleship will be hitting local screens later this month, American Battleship will be hitting bargain bin DVD shops, fooling uninformed buyers, as they always have.

TMZ broke the news of the lawsuit, which claims Global Asylum is trying (duh) to piggyback off of the fame surrounding the  Universal’s marketing push for Battleship.

They also claim that American Battleship infringes on their copyright to the boardgame Battleship, which the Universal film is based on. There’s much more to it (For the full lawsuit, read here) but that’s what it essentially boils down to.

Global Asylum responded with the following statement;

The Global Asylum has promoted the feature film American Battleship for nearly a year while Universal raised no concerns. The timing of Universal’s recently filed lawsuit coincides with mixed reviews of its big-budget film, Battleship — the first movie based on a board game since Clue.

Looking for a scapegoat, or more publicity, for its pending box-office disaster, the executives at Universal filed this lawsuit in fear of a repeat of the box office flop, John Carter of Mars.

The Universal action is wholly without merit and we will vigorously defend their claims in Court. Nonetheless, we appreciate the publicity.

It’s never really been worthwhile for movie studios to go after Asylum in the past, as their clever marketing hasn’t exactly resulted in them owning Scrooge McDuck levels of cash, holed up in a giant vault that is constantly under attack.

Last Updated: May 2, 2012