Strange case of Ana de Armas and false advertising for ‘Yesterday’ has been settled

Jordan Hoffman
·3 min read
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Yesterday, all their troubles seemed so far away.

In 2022, Peter Rosza and Conor Woulfe sued Universal Pictures after they rented the 2019 movie “Yesterday” on Amazon Prime Video and subsequently felt they had been bamboozled by the trailer. The film, directed by Danny Boyle and written by Richard Curtis, is a zany musical fantasy in which Himesh Patel, a struggling musician, is bonked on the head and wakes up in a world in which The Beatles Never Happened. As such, he starts playing their songs as if they are his own and the movie follows the expected Preston Sturges-like tropes you might expect.

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The trailer for the movie featured quite a few glimpses of the alluring Cuban-born actress Ana de Armas, later Oscar-nominated for her leading turn in “Blonde,” who ended up not being in the movie at all. An early cut included her character, but that storyline was shaved down after the movie tested poorly. Nevertheless, the initial trailer was made before these adjustments and Rosza and Woulfe felt they were duped—duped!—by Hollywood! (Just imagine if these two guys were around in Samuel Z. Arkoff’s day.)

Their $3.99 purchase via Amazon led to a $5 million (!!!) lawsuit. This led to a bit of worry on behalf of Hollywood, as the case could conceivably lead to lawsuits by pranksters about almost any piece of marketing. (Example: “this poster makes I, Frankenstein look good, but, in fact, I, Frankenstein is bad!”) The case was dismissed and the Ana de Armas fans were left with Universal’s legal bills: $126,705. (Cue another Beatles tune: “Taxman.”)

Variety reported on Tuesday, however, that the two sides have come to an agreement. The details are unknown, but word is that neither side is too happy. The studio feels it wasted time and resources on a frivolous lawsuit, and the plaintiffs are convinced that California’s judges are in the pocket of Big Hollywood. (Variety’s story details the various levels of financial back-and-forth that went down over a $7.98 expense. Anyone who gets stressed out about financial waste, litigating vampires, and bad faith arguments is advised not to click.) 

The initial judge’s statement that movie trailers are considered “commercial speech,” and therefore could be subject to false advertising laws, may, however, be cited as a precedent in further cases, so perhaps these two Ana de Armas warriors will leave some kind of legacy.

“Yesterday,” which spent $10 million for the right to use songs from The Beatles’s catalog, was a modest success for Universal, grossing $155 million at the worldwide box office. It did not win any awards, unless you count Best World Film at the Montclair Film Festival. Its writer, Richard Curtis, whose roots are in British television classics like “Black Adder” and “Mr. Bean,” was nominated for an Oscar for “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” and won two Emmys for writing and creating “The Girl in the Café” starring Bill Nighy and Kelly Macdonald. Director Danny Boyle, won the Best Director Oscar for “Slumdog Millionaire” and received two nominations for “127 Hours.”

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