Warner Bros scuppers Donald Trump with legal action over use of 'Dark Knight Rises' theme

Warner Bros yesterday took action over a new campaign video for Donald Trump’s re-election in 2020 for using music from Christopher Nolan’s Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises.

Trump posted the video on Twitter yesterday, but hours – and some million views – later, the clip had been removed.

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Warner Bros confirmed to Buzzfeed that it had filed a complaint of copyright infringement against the use of the video.

“The use of Warner Bros.’ score from The Dark Knight Rises in the campaign video was unauthorized,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

“We are working through the appropriate legal channels to have it removed.”

The tweet now features a message saying that ‘this video has been removed in response to a report from the copyright holder’.

The video finds images of Trump intercut with those of prominent democrats and celebrities, from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, to Bryan Cranston and Amy Schumer.

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Also featured is Trump’s occasional nemesis Rosie O’Donnell, while Trump appears in images alongside North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the far-right president of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro.

On screen, text reads ‘First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they call you racist’, while the music, composed by film score legend Hans Zimmer – the track ‘Why Do We Fall’ from The Dark Knight Rises soundtrack – plays in the background.

It was quickly picked up on by movie fans that the video had lifted from the score.

As yet, the White House has not commented on the matter.