A Chinese tourism company is suing Paramount Pictures and a producer of the movie Transformers: Age of Extinction, saying they had failed to show the company’s logo in the movie.
Like other Hollywood filmmakers, Paramount has been eager to cash in on robust box-office revenues in the world’s second-largest film market.
Chongqing Wulong Karst Tourism Group (重慶武隆喀斯特旅遊集團), which manages the Wulong Scenic Area in southwest China, said it had lodged a lawsuit seeking 20.8 million yuan (US$3.36 million), against Paramount and the 1905 Internet Technology production company, in a court in Chongqing City for reneging on their contract.
The court had accepted the case, Xinhua news agency reported.
Some of the film’s scenes were shot at the scenic area and an official of the company that manages it said earlier some audience members were confused about where the scenes were shot as the firm’s logo did not appear on screen.
“We had already communicated with the other parties but they couldn’t fulfill our requests. It was not possible to speak further so we could only sue and if they are not able to remedy the situation we may just have to go to court,” a spokesman for the company told reporters yesterday.
A spokeswoman for Paramount, a unit of Viacom, declined to comment.
Transformers: Age of Extinction is the fourth in a series about form-changing robots that save the world, and has raked in more than 1.38 billion yuan in China to become its highest-grossing movie ever, Xinhua reported.
Xinhua reported this week that the tourism firm wanted Paramount to show the logo “China Wulong” in all DVDs, TV and digital platforms on which the movie would be shown and had asked producers to return 4.8 million yuan in contract payments.
It had also asked producers to bear losses of 4 million yuan, which it suffered when the scenic spot was shut for several days for the filming, and to compensate it for expected profit losses of 12 million yuan.
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