Filmmaker Christopher Nolan gracefully offered to change the title font of his upcoming film, Tenet, after learning that it looked very similar to that of a bike company.
According to The Playlist, Tenet’s owner Tyler Deschaine had written about the logo’s similarity in a 2019 Instagram post, and had expressed concerns about being attacked for plagiarism, whereas their logo came first. In response to the post, Nolan wrote Deschaine an email, requesting him to allow the filmmakers to continue using their font, and offering to change it in case they had problems.
“I guess lightning can strike twice, and obviously I understand that you would not want anyone thinking that you had been inspired by our movie’s title treatment,” Nolan wrote in the email. “Feel free to quote me in shooting such misunderstandings down. I love our logo so I hope you won’t feel this is necessary, but if you like, I can stop using it since it seems you went public with yours first,” Nolan wrote.
In his original post, Deschaine had written, “No, despite the striking similarities, we are not making a movie with Christopher Nolan. Maybe it was a coincidence, or maybe Nolan was inspired by our branding; regardless the apparent negligence is frustrating to say the least. Thank you to all the people that have reached out in support of Tenet (the bike brand). When we became aware of this, our biggest fear was that many of our peers who haven’t heard of Tenet (the bike brand, sh*t this is going to get old quick) might think WE stole the logo from Nolan, when in reality, we launched long before this movie was announced. If you would like to share this post to help spread the word, it would be greatly appreciated. I’m sure one day we’ll all look back on this and shake our heads in disbelief.”
In an interview with Pinkbike, Deschaine said that he has been advised by his lawyers to not pursue the matter any further, as it could get dragged on for years.
Tenet, Nolan’s latest sci-fi film, will be released in a phased manner in countries where theatres have resumed operations, beginning September 3. The film stars Robert Pattinson, John David Washington, Dimple Kapadia, Kenneth Branagh and others.
