Cadillac F1 team confident it can resolve lawsuit with Michael Bay

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Formula 1 team Cadillac is confident it can resolve a dispute with filmmaker Michael Bay, who is suing for $1.5 million for his ideas being used without permission in a Super Bowl commercial.

In a 19-page lawsuit filed on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court of California, Bay accused Dan Towriss, the principal owner and CEO of the Cadillac F1 team, of using his ideas for the commercial before he “abruptly decided to go in a different direction.”

Cadillac said in a statement to The Associated Press on Monday that it met with Bay a couple of times and “it became clear he couldn’t meet our timeline, and there ultimately wasn’t a path forward.”

“It’s unclear why he’s bringing this claim since the concept and creative were already developed and we were only exploring him as a director,” Cadillac said. “We’re confident this will be resolved appropriately. Even so, we still admire Michael Bay’s creative brilliance and would welcome the opportunity to work together in the future.”

In the commercial broadcast on Sunday during the Super Bowl, the team unveiled a new car with the famous “We Choose to Go the Moon” speech by former President John F. Kennedy.

In his lawsuit, Bay, the award-winning director of action movies and commercials, said Towriss vaguely told him about the JFK speech and he showed him a seven-minute clip from “Transformers 3” where he used the speech, and said ”Towriss was thrilled.”

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