10 Movie Scenes That Led To Massive Lawsuits - Commenter Edition

6. Netflix Accused Of Defamation - The Laundromat

rebecca hall lay the favorite
Netflix

Netflix's The Laundromat was one of the service's best original movies of 2019, but prior to its wide release, it was caught up in a complicated legal battle started by the two men at the centre of its story, Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca.

The duo - co-founders of Mossack Fonseca, a former law firm that was forced to close after some of its shady dealings were exposed by the Panama Papers - launched a defamation lawsuit against Netflix in October 2019, taking issue with the scenes featuring Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas as Mossack and Fonseca, respectively, claiming that they were portrayed as "ruthless uncaring lawyers".

In its defence, Netflix described the film's take on the two men as "cartoonish", and said that director Steven Soderbergh had made a "comedic morality tale", before ending with the mic-drop line that Mossack and Fonseca's reputations were ruined "long before" the release of The Laundromat. Ouch.

Ultimately, a judge cleared the movie for release as planned, and upon hearing that verdict, Netflix called the lawsuit "a frivolous legal stunt designed to censor creative expression".

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.