Cadillac F1 CEO Dan Towriss has expressed his disappointment at a lawsuit filed against him by a Hollywood director over the team's $10 million livery launch advert that aired during the Super Bowl.
Michael Bay, renowned for directing blockbuster movies Pearl Harbor and Armageddon, claims Cadillac hired him to direct the 30-second commercial that was watched by hundreds of millions of viewers as it aired during Sunday's night's clash between Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots.
Bay, however, was later dropped, only to see the advert run during the fourth quarter of the game, sporting his ideas and concepts. He has since filed a 19-page breach-of-contract and fraud lawsuit for $1.5m.
The lawsuit claims that Cadillac, and Towriss, in particular, had set out to recruit "the most American director [he] could find".
It states that midway through the production, and after Bay had allegedly been "working nearly nonstop, Towriss abruptly decided to ‘go in a different direction’ and use someone else to complete the project".
The lawsuit adds that Towriss and Cadillac "have apparently stolen Bay’s ideas and work for the commercial, without paying for them", pointedly noting that "they planned all along to rip him off. They wanted a ‘Michael Bay’ commercial, in other words, at a bargain-basement price".
Speaking with select media, including RacingNews365, following the launch, Towriss said: "Our reaction is that we have a lot of respect for Michael.
"It's disappointing that he chose to do that [file a lawsuit]. Certainly, all of the creative work was done well in advance of ever speaking with him. We wanted to talk to him about a role as director, not taking creative ideas from him.
"I think the group, Translation, that we worked with did an excellent job developing all that.
"We're confident it'll be resolved amicably, but you know, from our standpoint, last night was a huge success, and we're very proud of the work that was done."
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