Eraser

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“The story is legendary. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s muscles and a $100 million budget couldn’t shield Warner Bros.’ Eraser from a possible lawsuit involving one letter of the alphabet. Cyrex, as the film’s corrupt company was called, was too close to Cyrix, a Texas-based computer-chip manufacturer. Rather than face an expensive legal battle, unwanted publicity, and countless headaches, Warner Bros. decided a change was in order. Using four facilities running 24 hours a day, the studio changed Cyrex to “Cyrez” in 90 shots.” Special Effects and Computer Grpahics, March 25, 2002

Whoops! Again. Old news, I know, but this was just mentioned on the INTA TMTopics list and I had to check it out. Apparently WB had to change not only the signs, but the actors’ lip movements to match the newly looped dialog. I can’t imagine that the WB lawyers didn’t know about this, so who decided that it wasn’t going to be an issue? Hubris or stupidity? You decide.

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Maria is Co-Founder & Creative Director of Catchword Branding and has personally created hundreds of brand names, including Asana, Upwork, Vudu, and

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