According to reports from the Los Angeles Times and The Verge on Tuesday, the screenwriter of the 1989 American classic film "The Last Wagon" recently suedAmazon, accusing it of copyright infringement during the film remake.Screenwriter R. Lance Hill accused Amazon and MGM of using AI to "clone" actors' voices in new versions of the film in order to finish the film before the copyright expired..
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Hill said in the lawsuit filed in Central District Court in Los Angeles that he had applied to the U.S. Copyright Office toRequest to reclaim the rights to the film when United Artists' claim expires in November 2023Hill claimed that once that expired, the copyright would revert to him.
According to the lawsuit,Amazon Studios rushed to film the project in order to complete it before the copyright deadline.. Hindered by an actors' strike,Hill claims Amazon used AI to "copy" the voices of the actors involved in the film remakeThis practice violates the terms of the agreement reached between the union and major film studios, including Amazon. "Amazon has taken extreme measures and incurred considerable additional costs for this." According to the original plan, the film was broadcast on Prime Video on March 21.
Amazon flatly denied the claim that it was using AI to replace or recreate actors’ voices. A spokesperson told The Verge,The studio explicitly instructed the filmmakers not to use artificial intelligence in this film.”
The spokesperson also added that even if AI was used, it was only in an early version of the film, not the one that was sent to the studio. Later, the producers were told to remove any "AI or non-SAG AFTRA actors" from the final version. The company also added that many of the allegations in the lawsuit are "completely false" and believes that its copyright to the original version of "Slam Dunk" has not expired.