What started as a creative cooperation between the late Norwegian artist and author Kjell Aukrust and filmmaker Ivo Caprino has braked to a halt in an Øyer courtroom, quite literally. Their estates are quarreling over the rights to a fanciful vehicle drawn by Aukrust and used by Caprino in his classic film Flåklypa Grand Prix, and the cooperation between the two men’s successors now seems irreversibly stalled.
At issue is who has the rights to the vehicle known as Il Tempo Gigante. Caprino adapted Aukrust’s drawings of the car for use in his film, in the form of a model, with Aukrust’s backing. After the film premiered in 1975, and became a huge hit, they decided to also make a full-scale model that was nearly seven meters long and used for promotional purposes around the world.
Then it was parked in the Hunderfossen amusement park in Øyer, just north of Lillehammer, which Ivo Caprino helped found in the early 1980s. It was removed, however, when disputes began to arise between Caprino and Aukrust in the 1990s over the rights to characters created by Aukrust and spread globally by Caprino. The two men settled their differences before they died, but new ones flared between their heirs, most recently over the car.
This week, a model of it was parked in the Sør-Gudbrandsdal courtroom. A judge has been asked to decide whether a roller coaster in the Hunderfossen amusement park is modelled after Aukrust’s original drawings or Caprino’s film version. The roller coaster is called Il Tempo Extra Gigante and was built with the approval of the Aukrust family’s foundation, without any involvement by the Caprino Filmcenter. Remo Caprino, the filmmaker’s son, felt overlooked and was not pleased he wasn’t consulted.
Attempts were made to settle the latest conflict out of court but Caprino Filmcenter ended up suing Hunderfossen Familiepark for alleged violation of property rights and Norwegian marketing law. Caprino is demanding financial compensation for use of the vehicle it contends was created for the film. The unusual, and legally complicated, case got underway this week, with those on both sides claiming it’s “sad” that it wound up in court. The case is due to run through August 26.
(Sources: Newspapers Aftenposten, Gudbrandsdølingen, VG, The Aukrust Center and caprino.no)
newsinenglish.no/Nina Berglund
