So... CRANK A hitman with 20 hours to live, determined to find out who poisoned him, and settle the score before he dies -- -- is literally the logline for CRANK.

Yes, James, that REALLY stretches the concept of 'similar but different,' with a heavy emphasis on SIMILAR!

Nice to see another remake of "D.O.A."

I just feel sorry for the state of originality in films. I haven't seen DRIVE yet. People say it is amazing. I don't doubt it. It looks good. It also looks like a remake of THE TRANSPORTER. Which is probably the entire reason I haven't paid to see it yet. Similar but different used to apply to movie concepts as well. Guess, now it doesn't. It's weird too. Asylum, notorious for their rip-off low budget versions of blockbusters, would be sued beyond recognition if they released a film as similar as these two have been to other movies. I ream out INCEPTION a lot. I think it's movies like these that make 1/2 baked films like Inception seem like a breath of fresh air. In truth, it was. I think I grew up at the wrong time. I was a teenager when Tarantino, Spike Lee, Sodeberg, Kevin Smith were breaking through as directors. Bruckheimer was making action movies like Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop. Joel Silver was making Die Hard. The new classics were Stone's PLATOON and WALL STREET. I grew up watching STAR WARS aired on channel 5s Saturday night theater. Complete with interviews with Spielberg, Lucas, John Dykstra, and yes, Magic Johnson before going to commercial breaks. I guess I just expected the movie business to be a business of pushing boundaries. Maybe it was back then. I don't really know. But it certainly isn't now. Now, films are made for the lowest common denominator. And it's sad. Because it doesn't have to be that way. E.T. found a huge audience. As did BIG. As did PULP FICTION. As did CLERKS. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but the objective of acquiring a spec today, isn't to make the best story -- in fact, many people argue story isn't even a factor anymore -- but to generate the most revenue. The two aren't mutually exclusive. The biggest irony is I was leafing through a screenwriting book last night -- I tend to do that from time to time -- and the one piece of advice I thought held the most insightful knowledge was: "I give my students one rule of thumb: if you've seen it before, don't write it. This is not so big a burden as it may seem at first glance. Writers are growing more sophisticated, too. My students amaze me with their ingenuity. Creating new and fresh scenes is one of the most important aspects of becoming a successful screenwriter. For this reason I have lost my infatuation with Syd Field's paradigm." I couldn't agree more.

@James, I've happily seen all three Transporters, so big grain of salt, but I would be stunned if Drive is like Transporter or anything else. Any movie that comes from guy behind Bronson will be entirely its own thing. Can't wait to see it. Paul Schrader made observation in interview, we are oversaturated in narratives, and narratives need to evolve with the medium to remain compelling. I think he'd agree with "new and fresh scenes" as vitally important aspect. Not a script sale, but a sale from webisodes (with the blazingly awesome Michael Jai White), Kevin Tancharoen will be directing a Mortal Kombat live action movie. Pretty simple story (makes Crank and Expiration seem complicated), but a lot of passion and savvy going into project, let's see if they can make it entertaining at feature scale. http://www.avclub.com/articles/yes-there-will-be-another-mortal-kombat-movie,62564/ http://collider.com/?tag=mortal-kombat

I agree on TRANSPORTER vs DRIVE. Yet, here I am -- haven't paid to go see what should be a no-brainer for me, a film well within my wheelhouse -- DRIVE. And honestly, I don't know why. @ the Mortal Kombat stuff. It's not really a spec. He shot a spec episode (that had Jeri Ryan in it /sigh -- don't you wish all our specs could have known actresses in them?) which he originally wanted to use to get them to see the potential for an MK movie -- that hopefully they'd let him direct. They said no. But greenlit the MK series he did through machinima. That wasn't spec at all. Had a substantial budget for a webseries. And that series is what got him the gig. Pretty clearly an assignment gig -- even though he had to beg them for it and create a successful web series to land it.

DOA's logline: "Someone poisoned Dexter Cornell. He's got to find out who. He's got to find out why. He's got to find out now. In 24 hours, he'll be Dead On Arrival."

So there is the 1950 version of the movie D.O.A.. But that is 51 years ago. That is an eternity by Hwood standards. Hell, they are remaking movies made 10 years ago (e.g., Planet of the Apes, Hulk). Hollywood was green before eco-friendly was hot... in that they LOVE to recycle story concepts.

@James, great background, thank you so much for sharing. Always nice to see Seven of Nine :-). For fun movie, comes to mind because of Bronson (two movies I avoided for while because of perceived brutality, Bronson warranted it, but was so damn good, had to be seen, ends up ATGS wasn't brutal, instead, a whole lotta fun): Attack the Gas Station. Low budget by Hollywood standards, and kickass in all important ways. Re Drive, yeah, I will confess a part of me not looking forward to it, realized it's because that mad joy at center of Bronson was there because of real life Bronson; when left to his own devices, with a fully fictional story, Refn might well be entirely bleak. But we can be sure, Drive will be a stunning immersion, the kind of ride where you even forget to deconstruct the movie, Refn is that good.