Fans of Ana De Armas found troubles were not so far away when they paid to download the Beatles-inspired film Yesterday only to see the actress was not, as the trailer promised, in the final cut.
Now a US judge has given two complainants the chance to sue studio Universal for falsely advertising the 2019 film.
Conor Woulfe and Peter Michael Rosza paid $3.99 (£3.31) to rent Yesterday on Amazon Prime after seeing a scene in the trailer where main character Jack (Himesh Patel) appears on The Late Late Show With James Corden on the sofa alongside a character played by Knives Out actress de Armas.
But they were so put out that the Danny Boyle-directed film, where struggling musician Jack becomes a global star when all traces of The Beatles are zapped from the Earth, that they took legal action.
California US district judge Stephen Wilson ruled on Friday that Woulfe and Rosza can proceed with their bid to sue Universal for $5 million (£4.1 million) which they say is “class action”.
Universal failed in its bid to throw out the bid, arguing that film trailers should be protected under the US first amendment - which gives a right to freedom of speech. They also said that trailers often use footage not included in the final film, such as Jurassic Park - which was entirely re-edited.
But Judge Wilson decided that because a trailer advertises a film, it should be considered “commercial speech” as opposed to the “non commercial speech” which Universal argued for. He said that because de Armas was prominently featured, any viewer would have expectations of her being in the final version.
The film’s screen writer Richard Curtis later explained that her scenes, where Jack serenades de Armas’s character, were taken out so as not to distract the storyline from the primary love interest played by Lily James.
Universal said this could open the door to future lawsuits from dissatisfied fans, or even those looking to make money off the back of a motion picture.
Woulfe and Rosza’s lawsuit will now proceed to discovery and a motion for class certification.
