Hollywood director Michael Bay sues Cadillac F1 team over Super Bowl advert

Filmmaker Michael Bay is suing Formula 1 team Cadillac for $1.5 million, alleging his creative ideas were used without permission in their recent Super Bowl commercial.

The 19-page lawsuit, filed on Friday in the Los Angeles Superior Court of California, claims Cadillac F1’s principal owner and CEO, Dan Towriss, appropriated Bay’s concepts before he "abruptly decided to go in a different direction."

Cadillac, in a statement to The Associated Press on Monday, acknowledged meeting Bay but stated: "it became clear he couldn’t meet our timeline, and there ultimately wasn’t a path forward."

The team expressed confusion over the claim, adding: "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 remains "confident this will be resolved appropriately" and still "admire Michael Bay’s creative brilliance and would welcome the opportunity to work together in the future."

The Super Bowl commercial, broadcast on Sunday, featured the unveiling of a new car alongside excerpts from John F Kennedy’s famous "We Choose to Go to the Moon" speech.

Bay’s lawsuit further details that he had shown Towriss a seven-minute clip from Transformers 3 where he had previously used the JFK speech, noting that "Towriss was thrilled."

However, Towriss has insisted that Bay was never going to be hired to work on the creative side of the commercial. “Our reaction is that we have a lot of respect for Michael… [but] disappointed he chose to do that [file a lawsuit],” Towriss said. “Certainly all the creative [work] was done well in advance of ever speaking with him. We were wanting to talk to him about a role as director, not taking creative ideas from him.

“The group, Translation [creative agency], that we worked with did an excellent job developing all that, so we are confident it will be resolved amicably. From our standpoint, last night was a huge success and we are very proud of the work that was done, and that’s all I can say on it.”

Cadillac joined Formula 1 as the sport’s 11th team this season with Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez as its drivers. They will appear in Bahrain for testing this week, before the first grand prix of the season in Australia on March 8.