I was wondering about this topic. Both 'The Book of Eli' and 'Inception' are very similar to scripts I was writing. Dang Hollywood!

Rework the idea into something more original. I had to do it, just like everyone else at one time or another, and I ended up with something better than what I had originally, so there is a silver lining after all.

Seeing the post Scott put up about DEVIL got me thinking about the number of times Hollywood has "doubled up" on their premises for produced films, which reminded me of the OTHER stuck-in-an-elevator-thriller that just sold.

So, DEVIL got made, DOWN is on its way to getting made, and what are the odds that someone buys two scripts that even involve elevators as a main plot point, much less the major location? (Not to mention they both start with D!)

And then a three or four years ago, again--who would have thought that out of all the genres and premises out their, we'd find two movies released in the same year about...19th Century magicians? The Illusionist and The Prestige came out within months of eachother, if I remember correctly.

Off the top of my head, there are at least three sets of movies covering the same subject that are currently in production/greenlit/racing to the greenlight: competing Three Musketeers movies, competing Don Quixote movies and competing 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea movies. The trend there with the current ones being that they're all adaptations, but still. So. Just heaping the evidence onto the pile that already lets us know that Hollywood digs the same but different. And in these cases, sometimes doesn't even bother with the "different" part.

I would add my vote to what Ryan said, though. Great opportunity to really take a look at your story and ask yourself is this really the best way to tell my story? Is it NECESSARY that it be told this way?

Or. If you've got a Wizard of Oz re-imagining sitting in a drawer, send it over to Fox and see if you can race Sam Raimi's Oz project out of the gate.

I was thinking about that just yesterday, glad someone asked it :-)

Scott, your reply gives us all hope and when you stop to think about it, it is amazing the amount of similar films or re-makes being made.
One storyline I can think of is the various adaptations of the book Les Liaisons Dangereuses. I have seen 3 of those movies - valmont, Dangerous Liaisons and Cruel Intentions, but believe there have been a few others made too.

@Ryan Mullaney: Great point. I'll update the post with your comment as that is an obvious tack to take.

@Nate Winslow: You can add K-9 and Turner & Hootch to your list. How about 18 Again, Like Father Like son, Big, and a fourth one that I can't quite remember, all of them coming out within a year of each other? This springs, I think, from the fear that underlies much of how studios operate. Hard to spring for an original, fresh idea, but if Studio A buys a body-swapping movie, the execs in Studio B think, "Hey, if THEY think that's a great subject matter, maybe WE should try to find something." Put out the word to reps, dig through their development trough. The latter is pretty much what happened, as I understand it, with Turner & Hootch - it had been collecting dust at Disney until K-9 sold, then all of a sudden they sprang into action, hiring new writers, and so on.

In other words, sometimes it actually HELPS to have a similar project out there.

Thanks, Scott!