Fans take Universal Pictures to court over film without actress Ana de Armas

Two American fans of Cuban-Spanish actress Ana de Armas have sued Hollywood studio Universal Pictures, saying they were duped into renting a film because she was in the trailer, reported BBC.

Conor Woulfe and Peter Rosza say they each paid $3.99 for the comedy Yesterday, only to discover the actress had been removed from the final cut. They are seeking $5 million in compensation on behalf of all affected viewers.

Universal Pictures has so far not commented on the issue.

The fans say they were victims of deceptive marketing, and that Universal used de Armas' "fame, radiance and brilliance" to promote a film she wasn't in.

"Although defendant included the scenes with Ms de Armas in the movie trailer advertisements, for the purposes of promoting Yesterday and enticing film sales and rentals, Ms de Armas is not and was never in the publicly released version of the movie," says the complaint filed in California on Friday, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Yesterday is about a singer-songwriter who hits his head and wakes up to discover he is the only person on Earth who remembers the Beatles.

Ana de Armas - who appeared in the latest Bond film No Time to Die - was to have co-starred as a love interest of the singer in the comedy. But the scenes with the 33-year-old actress were cut, apparently because audiences did not like that aspect of the storyline.

Richard Curtis, the screenwriter, said in 2019 that it had been a "very traumatic cut", because de Armas was "brilliant" in the role.