Warner Bros. has its own ‘Trump’ card as it topples the 45h President of the United States in an epic legal battle of copyright infringement.
It’s a ‘dark night’ for Trump as the studio behind the Batman movies has won a case to stop the President using music from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises.
The 2012 blockbuster rounded off Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and famously brought back Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader. Newcomers included Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle and Tom Hardy as a muffled version of Bane.
It turns out that it isn’t just millions of Bat-fans that loved the movie. Trump posted a bizarre video to his Twitter that mashed together various shots of himself alongside Hans Zimmer’s legendary score from the movie.
Now, BuzzFeed News confirms the video has been pulled thanks to a copyright claim. Critics were quick to pick up the potentially unauthorised use of music and highlighted that Trump included a large section of Zimmer’s “Why Do We Fall” from the superhero sequel.
The video appeared to have been part of his 2020 reelction campaign, but sorry Donald, it turns out you can’t rely on Batman for that one. Trump managed to mass an eye-watering one million views in just three hours before Warner Bros. sent in its heavies and had the video pulled.
This isn’t the first time the POTUS has come under fire for cashing in on our favourite TV shows and movies. Late last year, Trump stole Game of Thrones‘ infamous motto and tweeted “Sanctions are Coming” as a riff on the popular “Winter is Coming”.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 2, 2018
While stars like Sophie Turner launched their own emotionally charged rampage on Trump, a HBO spokesperson told The Hill and said: “We were not aware of this messaging and would prefer our trademark not be misappropriated for political purposes.” This was backed by a tweet that said, “How do you say trademark misuse in Dothraki?”
Elsewhere, Pharrell Williams’ lawyers sent him a cease and desist letter after Trump awkwardly played “Happy” the same day as the Pittsburgh synagogue shootings.
Warner Bros. joins a long list of stars and intellectual properties that want to ‘build a wall’ between themselves and Trump. In the past, R.E.M., Neil Young, Adele, Twisted Sister, Elton John, Queen, The Rolling Stones and estates side representing Prince, Pavarotti, and George Harrison have all asked not to be included in anything related to him.
[Featured Image: Pixabay/Warner Bros.]