It seems there may be a legal battle looming over two alien invasion movies, both of which see extra-terrestrials trying to take over LA. Universal is planning to launch Greg and Colin Strause’s Skyline at the end of the year, while Sony is preparing Battle: Los Angeles for next March.
While no lawsuit has been filed yet, Deadline is reporting that Sony is contemplating suing over Skyline, with the problem stemming that the fact that the studio hired the Strause’s FX compant, Hydraulx to work on special effects for Battle: Los Angeles in early 2009. That gave Hydraulx access to proprietary information that included script drafts, storyboards, and pre-viz animatics (much of which they’d also seen as they had been contempated as potential directors of the movie).
Sony lawyers are now looking into whether their access to this material directly acted as a springboard for Skyline, and even if not, the brothers should have disclosed to Sony their intention to make a rival movie involving ETs in LA. The Strauses have said any claims are “completely baseless. This is a blatant attempt by Sony to force these independent filmmakers to move a release date that has long been set by Universal and Relativity and is outside the filmmakers’ control.”
It may also be an attempt by Sony to muscle in on the Skyline profits, although as yet, the studio hasn’t decided whether to take the case to court or not. Battle: LA is pitched as a look at what real military firepower would look like taking on aliens in Los Angeles, while Skyline has the ETs adbucting most of the populace, leaving a few survivors to take on the menace.