By Ted Thornhill
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As the actors in Universal’s Battleship slug it out with the aliens on the big screen the film company's lawyers are fighting their own war â€" with a rival movie company that it claims has ripped its title off.
In its line of sights is production company The Asylum, which specialises in low-budget ‘mockbusters’ â€" straight-to-DVD versions of popular movies.
Previous productions include Titanic 2, The Terminators and Transmorphers.
Hull of a legal battle: Universal claims that American Battleship far too similar to Battleship
From May 22 it will be possible to buy American Battleship on DVD â€" and as tmz.com reports, Universal is gunning for justice.
The site points out that this release day is just four days after audiences in the U.S will be able to watch Battleship, which is based on the classic Hasbro naval combat game.
Universal fumes that, for starters, the poster and the plot are remarkably similar.
In what Universal would describe as the authentic version, Liam Neeson and Rihanna face a terrifying alien force known as The Regents.
Battle ensues over land and air â€" but mostly the sea.
Starring Carl Weathers and Mario Van Peebles, American Battleship has a very similar premise â€" with the tagline reading: ‘When modern weapons fail… it’s time to bring in the big guns’.
In Battleship our heroes must defeat 'The Regent'
Responding to Universal Pictures' allegations a spokesman for The Global Asylum told MailOnline: 'The Global Asylum has promoted the feature film "American Battleship" for nearly a year while Universal raised no concerns.
'The timing of Universal’s recently-filed lawsuit coincides with mixed reviews of its big-budget film, "Battleship" - the first movie based on a board game since "Clue."
'Looking for a scapegoat, or more publicity, for its pending box-office disaster, the executives at Universal filed this lawsuit in fear of a repeat of the box office flop, "John Carter of Mars."
'The Universal action is wholly without merit and we will vigorously defend their claims in Court.'
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Both films are a rip off from the computer game Crysis anyway except that the game is better.
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thanks for the free publicity!
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haha battlefield was a mockbuster in its own right, they probably made it better and now there gutted, pitiful.
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Some of the "mockbusters" are better than the original film !
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