Source: MCN, Movies.com
by James Wallace
People have attempted to sue (and at times have even won) over all kinds of ridiculous things. Hollywood is no stranger to these frivolous lawsuits, like in 1996 when the family of a woman attempted to sue Oliver Stone and Warner Bros. after she was shot in a robbery they claimed was perpetrated as a direct result of Stone's Natural Born Killers (as you can imagine, that case was dismissed, but not until 2001). But this latest case, picked up from Movie City News (via Movies.com) involving a Detroit woman and Drive, may have sped to the top of the list of "Silliest Movie-Related Lawsuits of All Time." Read all the details below!
According to moviegoer Sarah Deming, Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive did not meet the expectations she had for the film which she felt were set by the trailer, leading her to believe Drive was akin to more action-packed, blockbuster car heist films like The Fast and the Furious franchise (the woman would have likely enjoyed the once-planned version of Drive starring Hugh Jackman and directed by Neil Marshall). She was so disappointed by her unmet expectations that she lawyered up with Martin Leaf and filed a lawsuit against Drive's distributor, FilmDistrict, under the Michigan Consumer Protection Act.
To quote the woman's official complaint, FilmDistrict "promoted the film Drive as very similar to the Fast and Furious, or similar, series of movies." In Deming's opinion, "Drive bore very little similarity to a chase or race action film... having very little driving in the motion picture." You know, besides the fact that the whole film centers around a guy that is a stunt driver by day/getaway driver by night, works on cars in his spare time, is in line to become a race car driver, and in his free time drives around L.A. listening to pop music, who we see in or around cars more than we do otherwise. Oh, and did I mention he's called "The Driver?" But besides that, I guess she's right.
To add to that, since that's certainly not all, the women was offended by what she perceived as the film's demeaning portrayal of members of the Jewish faith. "Drive was a motion picture that substantially contained extreme gratuitous defamatory dehumanizing racism directed against members of the Jewish faith, and thereby promoted criminal violence against members of the Jewish faith." So apparently, she thought Drive would have less Jewish stereotypes in it and more Asian, Hispanic, and African-American stereotypes, just like in Fast and the Furious.
So what does she want out of it? Just that; out of it. Wait, that's not right. No, her demands are far more ridiculous. Other than having FilmDistrict refund her money, Deming wants to stop misleading movie trailers so much so that she soon intends to take this from an individual lawsuit to a class action lawsuit.
Rumor is that she will next set her sights on other October releases, including The Three Musketeers for actually having four guys who fight together, along with the film's malicious portrayal of mustaches. Word also has it that she may even be aiming for Anonymous for using Radiohead in its trailer and thus insinuating that William Shakespeare also took credit for penning the song "Everything in Its Right Place" and Puss In Boots for not having as much puss or boots as the title implies. If I were Clint Eastwood, I'd be worried that Deming may come after J. Edgar in November, for leading audiences to believe that J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of the FBI, was actually a time traveling Leonardo DiCaprio in disguise, not to mention for the film's gratuitous defamatory dehumanizing racism directed against Northern accents.
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