Any attendee of Comic Con knows that spending too much time in Hall H can mess with your head. This year it got to the point that people were stabbing each other over chairs. Chairs! Eventually it may get to the point that you think you're seeing double. In the case of Battle: Los Angeles and Skyline, however, it wasn't just a case of one's brain playing tricks. Both films, which were promoted at this year's convention, feature an alien invasion in the city of Los Angeles. But, apparently, that's not all they share.
Deadline reports that Sony, who is backing Battle: Los Angeles, is ready to go to war with Greg and Colin Strause, the creators of Skyline and owners of visual effects company Hydraulx. According to the article, Hydraulx was paid by Sony to develop the effects Battle: Los Angeles without disclosing the fact that they were making their own film with a very similar subject that would be out four months earlier. In layman's terms, Sony was directly funding their competition. Even funnier, it wasn't until Sony executives saw the trailer for Skyline at Comic Con that they began to be concerned, despite the fact that information about the film has been floating around for months. Lawyers from Sony have begun looking into the matter.
It's nearly impossible to support the Strause brothers on this. While it is kind of sad that it took Sony this long to find out about the project, how can the Strause brothers defend the fact that they were making a film and, at the same time, accepting money from a rival production? Better give the leg store a call because they don't have one to stand on.
