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Updated September 9th, 2021 at 13:31 IST

'It is bit of a mess': Benedict Cumberbatch reacts to Scarlett Johansson's Disney lawsuit

Benedict Cumberbatch recently commented on the ongoing Scarlett Johansson's lawsuit against Disney and stated how sad it was. Read further ahead to know more.

Reported by: Nehal Gautam
Scarlett Johansson
IMAGE: AP | Image:self
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As Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit against Disney has created a buzz on the internet, her The Avengers co-star, Benedict Cumberbatch, recently opened up on the issue and stated that the whole thing was just a mess. 

Scarlett Johansson, who essayed the role of Black Widow for a decade, recently filed a lawsuit against Disney for breaching their contract and releasing Black Widow on the Disney+ streaming service with Premier Access at the same time it hit theatres.

Benedict Cumberbatch comments on Scarlett Johansson's Disney lawsuit

According to the reports by The Hollywood Reporter, Doctor Strange fame Benedict Cumberbatch recently spoke about Scarlett Johansson's Disney lawsuit and mentioned-

“It's sad what's going on between the lawyers. Just the verbiage and the accusations of, 'Put it in a global pandemic context.' The whole thing's just a bit of a mess."

Cumberbatch further discussed how many artists in the industry were trying to find a way to compensate artists for their work and added, “It's a new paradigm, and it's a very complex one. No one saw this coming, and no one should use hindsight to say, 'Well, it should have been done.' That was the first of these films that was going to get a cinematic release during the pandemic and got stalled and stalled and stalled. It's very new territory.".

What is Scarlett Johansson's Disney lawsuit all about?

In her suit against Disney, the actor claimed her contract with Disney's Marvel Entertainment was for an exclusive movie theatre release as her salary was highly dependant on the movie’s box-office performance. According to Box Office Mojo, Disney took in $372.3 million worldwide, including $67 million from Disney+. 

"Disney intentionally induced Marvel's breach of the agreement, without justification, in order to prevent Ms. Johansson from realizing the full benefit of her bargain with Marvel", the suit stated. According to the documents obtained by People, even Johansson's attorney John Berlinski released a statement saying, "It's no secret that Disney is releasing films like Black Widow directly onto Disney+ to increase subscribers and thereby boost the company's stock price — and that it's hiding behind COVID-19 as a pretext to do so. But ignoring the contracts of the artists responsible for the success of its films in furtherance of this short-sighted strategy violates their rights and we look forward to proving as much in court. This will surely not be the last case where Hollywood talent stands up to Disney and makes it clear that, whatever the company may pretend, it has a legal obligation to honor its contracts.".

 

IMAGE: AP

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Published September 9th, 2021 at 13:30 IST

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