Following its November release, the second season of Netflix’s hit reality series, Tiger King, featured unauthorized clips of Ace Ventura 2, leading to a lawsuit against the show’s producers and Morgan Creek Productions, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show’s focus, Joseph Maldonado Passage, also known as Joe Exotic, is now serving a 22-year prison sentence for animal abuse and attempted murder.
“The series was filled with sordid tales of animal abuse, voluminous guns and a quixotic bid for the U.S. presidency,” the lawsuit against Netflix and Goode Films said, via The Hollywood Reporter. “Most significantly, the program followed a murder-for-hire plot aimed at a competing animal sanctuary owner, hated by Joe Exotic, and seen as a threat to his ‘big cat’ empire.”
The show’s producers are being accused of using two clips of Ace Ventura 2, featuring Jim Carrey (The Mask), “without permission or license,” via The Hollywood Reporter. The two clips, one showing Carrey with a “monkey wrapped around his neck and shoulder,” and the other showing Carrey “triumphantly riding an elephant,” totaled five seconds of screen time in a Tiger King montage that featured a series of animals.
It said that the episode was viewed by “an audience of literally millions of viewers – many of them more than once, multiplying the harm to MCP – all while knowing or having reason to know of the use of the Infringing Clips was without permission, content or license,” via The Hollywood Reporter.
Morgan Creek, which claimed it tried to resolve the issue prior to filing a lawsuit, has accused the episode of using two comedic scenes from the film to amplify Tiger King‘s commercial value.
Morgan Creek is fighting for statutory damages, as well as attorney’s fees and is asking that the defendants refrain from using any Morgan Creek clips ever again.