

#LEELOO FIFTH ELEMENT MOVIE MOVIE#
On both fronts a UK case on the part of Besson and his company would have been by no means open and shut, but it was clearly never going to go down well with the director and producer of a movie to feature, without their consent, one of its leading actresses (and the director's ex wife to boot) in a costume and hairstyle that were very similar to how she had appeared in the film. In 1997, the science-fiction film The Fifth Element by Luc Besson was releasedand the character Leeloo, played by 19-year-old Milla Jovovich, was born.

A case in passing off might have a chance if it could be shown that viewers were confused into believing the campaign was the result of a commercial tie up between SFR and the moviemakers. In copyright, it is possible that copyright would protect a particular film set or a particular distinctive costume. This means that for Besson or his production company to succeed in the UK on similar facts they would have to show either passing off or copyright infringement. She was portrayed by Milla Jovovich, who also played Alice (Resident Evil) in Resident Evil Film series, Cydney Anderson in A Perfect Getaway, Anna Marchant in Faces in The Crowd, Kate Abbott in Survivor and Natalie Artemis in Monster Hunter.
#LEELOO FIFTH ELEMENT MOVIE CODE#
Here, the Ofcom code applicable to TV advertising is not terribly different to the position at law. Leeloo is the titular central protagonist of The Fifth Element as well as the love Interest of Korben Dallas. The French law of plagiarism is different to that in the UK. Besson said that he would give his share of the damages to charity. The agency and the advertiser responsible for the campaign defended their position and expressed concern at the implications of the decision against them. The campaign included TV executions also, which Besson suggested used sets, which were very similar to those in his movie. What might have particularly irritated him was the fact that Jovovich was his ex-wife. She also sported pretty much the same striking red hair style.īesson first encountered the ad on a giant billboard as he passed it on his motorbike. So far so good, but Milla appeared in the ad dressed in a costume very similar to the one she had worn when playing the character Leeloo in the sci-fi movie "The Fifth Element", directed by Besson and produced by his company Gaumont. The offending material was an advertising campaign for French mobile phone company SFR and starred the actress Milla Jovovich. The French ad agency Publicis Conseil was fined a total of €2.75 million following claims of plagiarism by filmmaker Luc Besson and his production company Gaumont. Who: Gaumont Productions, Luc Besson, Publicis Conseil and SFR
