Two top movie stuntmen are suing for £200,000 after being featured in “unauthorised” action clips in Sir Elton John’s farewell tour stageshow, showing the singer beating up baddies in a 70’s feathered suit and platform boots.
British stunt performers Theo Morton and Douglas Robson have launched a High Court claim over 18 seconds worth of film clips that Sir Elton used as part of the backdrop to his Farewell Yellow Brick Road stage show, which they say “became the highest grossing concert tour in history with 330 live performances”.
The footage was taken from the 2017 movie ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’, in which Sir Elton had a well-received cameo part playing himself as one of a group of celebrities held captive by villain Poppy Adams.
As part of the movie’s finale, the singer, dressed in his flamboyant feathered seventies stage gear, takes out a number of henchmen, including felling one with an acrobatic flying kick whilst wearing platform boots.
Mr Morton and Mr Robson, who appeared in some of the clips used, however now say they didn’t give permission for them to be part of Sir Elton’s touring show and have not been paid any royalties in relation to the “new use” of the footage.
Mr Morton, who worked on Game of Thrones and Dunkirk, and Mr Robson, who appeared in The Batman and Guardians of the Galaxy, are blaming the film company behind the Kingsman movie – MARV Bespoke Productions Limited – which is owned by top British director Matthew Vaughn and his supermodel wife Claudia Schiffer.
The pair are suing the company, claiming £100,000 each for breach of contract and asking for an injunction stopping the clips being used again without their permission.
But the power couple’s company is defending the claim, denying that it has done anything wrong or that the two stuntmen are owed a penny.
Jonathan Moss KC, the stuntmen’s barrister, setting out their claim in documents lodged at the court, said: “The claimants are stunt performers who have appeared in numerous films, including the film at issue in these proceedings, ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’, released in 2017.
“The performers were engaged by the film production company, MARV Bespoke Productions Ltd, under contracts dated 29 June 2016 and 14 July 2016 …to appear in the film subsequently released as Kingsman: The Golden Circle.”
He goes on to claim the contracts entitled them to a percentage of royalties from the film, plus money made from any “new use” of the footage.
“The performers’ performance, which embodies their rights, was provided to, and used in, Elton John’s ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ stage show,” he said.
“This use amounted to 18 seconds of footage from the film, featuring stunts performed by them, and was shown on a screen behind Elton John as he performed.
“The show, which used this extract to the best of the performers’ knowledge in all shows, has became the highest grossing concert tour in history with 330 live performances.
“The extracted footage including the performer’s performances from the film have also been broadcast on iPlayer and Disney Plus, where the Farewell Yellow Brick Road show was broadcast.
“All of this exploitation of this footage has been done without the performers’ prior consent nor prior knowledge. Its use therefore breaches the contract between the performers and MARV.”
But in the company’s defence to the action, its barrister, Tom Cleaver, says the stuntmen had already signed over their rights in the footage, adding that in any case MARV played no part in licensing the use of the clips for use on the singer’s tour and made no money from their use.
The company had signed over the rights in the film to another company which had then signed them over to 20th Century Fox, which agreed in August 2018 to grant a licence for “six clips totaling 18 seconds” from the film for use in connection with Sir Elton’s show.
“The allegation that ‘the performers’ performance, which embodies their rights’ was used in the show is denied. The claimants’ rights in respect of their performances had been assigned to the defendant, such that the clips from the film did not ‘embody’ any rights belonging to the claimants.
“The defendant was not responsible for the use of the clips in the show. It neither used the clips nor arranged their use, nor has it earned any proceeds from that use.
“That being so, it owed no obligation to seek prior consent for acts it did not do, nor did it owe any obligation to pay anything in respect of the proceeds of such acts, to which proceeds it was not entitled and which it did not receive.
“The use of the clips in the show did not constitute a new use….The use of an extract from a film in a live show, or in a recording of that show, is not a new and previously unknown form of exploitation.”
The case reached court for a brief pre-trial hearing last week, with Judge Melissa Clarke establishing the issues she must decide at the forthcoming trial.
She said the case rests on whether MARV authorised the use of the clips, whether the company was obliged to pay an artist share or to seek consent, whether the clips amounted to a new use of the footage and whether there has been a breach of contract.
Setting out the performers’ case, Mr Moss told the judge: “The use by Fox of the clips amounts to breach of contract by the defendant. The clips were shown by a musician in a context which has nothing to do with the movies. This is a paradigm case of a new use.”
But Mr Cleaver told the judge that the case should be decided on the basis of “what the parties who entered into it understood it to mean at the time” it was signed.
He also told the judge that there had been “nothing charged” for the use of the clips and there was therefore “nothing payable” to the stuntmen
Mr Moss countered, saying that the contract dictated that Marv must in any case “seek consent and pay the performer on a commercial basis” for a “new use” of their performance.
The case will return to court for a trial unless the parties settle out of court beforehand.
Sir Elton’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour ran from 2018 to 2023, while Kingsman: The Golden Circle premiered in 2017 and was directed by Matthew Vaughn.
The 55-year-old husband of supermodel Claudia Schiffer has produced films including Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, and directed Layer Cake, Stardust, Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class, and Argylle.
Vaughn also co-created the Kingsman comic book series and resulting franchise, directing, producing and co-writing the films from Kingsman: The Secret Service, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, and The King’s Man.
