A British filmmaker is suing Warner Music Group in Los Angeles for alleged copyright infringement, claiming that archival footage he shot was used in a 2021 documentary about the making of late rocker Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers” album without his permission, according to court papers obtained Tuesday.
Martyn Atkins, who photographed Petty frequently in the 1990s and served as art director of “Wildflowers,” contends Petty approved of his plans to make a film. After Petty’s 2017 death, Atkins says he was told by the musician’s estate he could go forward with the documentary, and he gave WMG the storage location of his material, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court last week.
He alleges the company plundered about 45 minutes of his 16mmm footage for the making of “Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free: The Making of Wildflowers,” directed by Mary Wharton and released three years ago.
Atkins says he never gave WMG rights to use his footage for Wharton’s film and that he was not compensated for the film’s “unauthorized, brazen exploitation” of his work.
“Atkins had been conned into believing he would produce and direct the film so that Atkins would reveal the location of his footage to defendants,” the complaint asserts.
It also alleges that the producers of “Somewhere You Feel Free” misrepresented the film’s archival footage as having been newly discovered.
“The film’s producers have systematically implemented this false narrative to manipulate the viewing public and bolster the marketing of the film,” lawyers for Atkins wrote.
Attempts to reach a WMG representative were unsuccessful.
Petty died on Oct. 2, 2017, of an accidental overdose of several medications at age 66, one week after the end of his group Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ 40th anniversary tour.