Why do Hollywood production companies occasionally make similar movies around the same time? It is and can be for any number of reasons. Many times, its purely coincidental, thanks in due part to subjects trending in the film and television industry market. When fairy tales became trends, Hollywood looked to classic characters like Snow White, thus we get Mirror, Mirror and Snow White and The Huntsmen, two vastly different takes on the character. With the advent of 2012 (The false Mayan Calender prophecy) , we had a plethora of end of the world movies come about, some of which missed the mark in 2012 (Its difficult to get a film funded and greenlit), thus the many end of the world movies in both 2012 and 2013. Reason? It was topical. Sometimes a hot script makes the rounds amongst the studios. For this fictional example, lets say that someone wrote an amazing high concept spec script (which is a script that is written under the speculation that someone will by it, as opposed to a screenwriter being hired to write it) about an earthquake, the mother of them all, that forces Southern California into the ocean. Now, this spec script has it all. It has emotion. It has action. Its an ultimate disaster flick with an ensemble group of characters. Now lets say that X executive or producer that has read the script tries to buy it, but someone beats them to it. So they decide to make their own earthquake script by hiring a writer. They change things here and there. Maybe instead of a male lead, they cast a female. Maybe instead of Southern California falling into the ocean, the lead characters actually save the day and prevent that from happening. The sky is the limit... as long as enough changes to the story are made. Sounds pretty horrible, doesnt it? Sounds like blatant copyright infringement, right? Well, heres the rub. You cant copyright an idea or concept. You can only copyright the implementation of that idea or concept, i.e. the script. Take a look at Netlfix. On or around the release of an animated studio movie, youll see some knock-offs show up on Netflix streaming that look exactly like the big animated studio release. Similar title. Similar poster even. But it is completely legal. Another thing can occur. So a hot script goes out and everybody in town reads it. Its a high concept spec script. As stated before, its about an earthquake that causes Southern California to fall into the ocean. Its an ensemble piece. A disaster flick. Action and melodrama. Big, huge special effects set pieces. Its likely going to be directed by either Michael Bay or Roland Emmerich. But an executive or producer wants to tackle the concept from a different angle. Instead of an ensemble piece, they want to personalize the story and have the events shown through the eyes of one character. That makes two different scripts based on one similar concept. Look at Deep Impact and Armageddon. Asteroid (or comet) headed on a collision course with Earth. Astronauts are sent up to space to destroy it. Same concept, two very different scripts. Armageddon was the funny, action packed special effects Bruce Willis vehicle. Deep Impact was the dramatic, more character driven film. Was this the result of stealing a concept from another script, doing a different take on a compelling concept, a topical subject at the time that was embraced by two different writers, or mere coincidence? Who knows. Only the powers that be know the real story... or dont know... or claim ignorance because it is bliss... or forget that they read the script years ago and then suddenly had an epiphany years later. In the end, what really happens is that two scripts with a similar concept are put into production around the same time (by chance, bad luck, or outright competition) and the studios are forced to decide whether they want to rush their production to beat the competition, or take their time and wait for the other fail, thus proving that their movie is the better of the two, or wait for it to succeed and ride the curtails. Or Vice Versa. Or a mixture of the two. Its a gamble. But a necessary one when this occurs. Hollywood doesnt like it. They often go to lengths to make sure it doesnt happen. There are many great scripts out there that have never been made because someone else beat the studio to the punch. Its just the way it is.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 00:58:57 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015