‘Tiger King’ star loses bid to stop upcoming sequel
American big cat rights activist Carole Baskin has lost a bid to halt the launch of “Tiger King 2” on Netflix over the “unauthorised” use of footage of her in the upcoming documentary.
The CEO of Big Cat Rescue filed a complaint and an emergency motion for a preliminary injunction against Netflix and film producer Royal Goode Productions with the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida on Monday 1 November.
The sequel documentary is scheduled to hit the online streaming service on Wednesday 17 November.
Baskin claimed that she and her husband signed appearance releases for “a documentary motion picture”, with no mention of granting Royal Goode Production sequel rights, nor derivative works of the first “Tiger King” feature.
She also said that her appearance in the sequel will cause the Baskins “irreparable injury”, alleging that the prior depiction of Big Cat Rescue in the first series of the hit show was “particularly harsh and unfair”.
She has asked the court to issue a declaratory judgment restricting the use of footage of her in the upcoming documentary and seeks a jury trial on the issue.
Responding to the emergency injunction on the same day, the federal court said that it was “not convinced” that the use of the footage in the new documentary would constitute “irreparable injury” to their reputations.
The court also claimed that there was no public interest case to issue a temporary restraining order on Royal Goode and Netflix.
‘Unfair’ depiction
In the complaint, Baskin also listed several complaints with her depiction in the original “Tiger King”.
She claimed that the documentary suggested that Baskin and her husband abused their rescue animals by keeping them in “very small cages” rather than open enclosures.
Finally, Baskin said: “‘Tiger King 1’ incorrectly suggests an equivalency between Big Cat Rescue and Joe Exotic’s roadside zoo, and more broadly that there is no difference between roadside zoos that exploit and mistreat animals and accredited sanctuaries that rescue and provide excellent lifetime care to the animals.”
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