[…] First, unless you are writing a quadrasexual snuff musical in Norwegian, you know… something really obscure… you should always be prepared to be blown out of the water by another project that gets set up before yours. I have had this happen more than once and wrote about a particularly painful experience <a target=_blank …read more […]

>> If you traffic in writing mainstream movies, you automatically increase the chances someone will beat you to the punch. And you just have to flat-out learn to live with that reality. Yep. It reminds me of what Willa Cather wrote in O Pioneers!: "There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years." If you're not singing the notes, writing the story... someone else is.”

I get really confused by where the line of "how same" a concept is to another. If the concept is similar, but the plot and characters are different, then is that same, but different? Unfortunately, when you traffic in high concept mass appeal movies writers will somehow be thinking the same thing. I think it's because we're all reacting from whatever has been happening in the world and come to a similar spark. For instance, I really thought Lucy had a very similar concept to Limitless--a drug that makes you have superpower smarts. Now, I would have been bummed if I was writing Lucy and read in the trades that they already have some project named Limitless already in the works. Writers sometimes aren't dealing with a competing spec but some internal development by producers that they might not even be aware of. What adds to the confusion is you can't really copyright a concept or a title (?) I've seen the same body switch, guy dresses as a woman, guy's daughter gets snatched, he starts his own investigation. Or looked on IMDB and found 7 movies with the exact same title. I know you mentioned that it's like obscenity...but even with obscenity, I'm not sure where the line is...and here it's even more confusing. I think this is a very interesting topic. I'm glad you devoted many blogs to this topic because writers new and experienced get really confused by this. What? You want same, but how different? Like many, I think I would be sick to my stomach if I labored on a script and then find out later that some competing project is already in the works... either I'd have to scrap it or rush the process and write a script that's not as developed as I would have liked to take time to develop. I think it's better to go the same but different route. There's probably a reason why people are not copying the Beaver. It was a little too out there and the ending really alienated people. I saw Tusk and wondered how that was even financed. It was going along nice for ten minutes and then takes a very off putting turn that I don't think audiences would like. By "different" I think audiences want Star Wars, Pretty Woman, Lethal Weapon--stories that have their unique style and universe but are still relateable and similar to movies that they've liked in the past only with a fresher energy to it.

Let me chime in with one of my favorite anecdotes along these lines, pgronk. Woody Guthrie supposedly wrote over 4,000 songs. When asked how he came up with all those melodies, he replied, "Well, I take one I like, and I give it a twist here, and a twist there... and make it my own." And that's pretty much it. I doubt there is a movie produced or book written where we could say, "I've never seen THAT before." So that's the baseline for this discussion: You're NEVER going to come up with a totally new, fresh, different concept, it's ALWAYS going to have some reference point in the past. The follow-up point which I make in the OP is that as far as Hwood is concerned, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Because consumers have those same associations, if studio produces a project and can market it to draft off those previously successful stories, that can help build awareness. Take Guardians of the Galaxy. It's quite reminiscent of The Avengers: Basically a dysfunctional family learning to live together. Guardians is different because the characters start off as rascals, not superheroes, and there is a notably different sense of humor, but that core dynamic is the same in both. So in effect, we're not just standing on the shoulders of those who have come before us, we're using their characters, scenes, themes, dialogue, etc etc as the raw material for OUR OWN STORIES. If we do that well and put our own unique spin on it, especially with a strong story concept, we position ourselves to write a marketable script.

Cheryl, thanks for your thoughts and I will say I appreciate your confusion. There is no clear line about any of this. It's all a gut thing, unless like - literally - your story is the SAME STORY as some other project. But even then... Back in 1988-1989, there were four movies with extremely similar body-switching conceits: Vice Versa, Like Father Like Son, 18 Again and Big. Right now, there are two Jungle Book projects being produced in Hollywood. Sometimes it's the similarity that encourages a studio or prod co to go forward. In the case of Turner & Hootch, as I recall, that project was stuck in development hell over at Disney. Once K-9 sold, they figured, "Well, if Universal sees something about a cop and dog story, let's look again at T&H." And so it became something of a race to see who would get to the marketplace first, with K-9 reigniting Disney's interest in T&H. But yes, there are times when a project comes along that blows out one of ours. For example, since Sex Tape didn't do very well, I suspect that movies with that as a central conceit or even a significant element might be looked at negatively at present. In fact, I would imagine there are probably dozens of sex tape-based scripts that hit the rejection pile after Sex Tape flopped. As I said in the OP, if we choose to traffic in mainstream movie concepts, we just have to live with the possibility we'll get beat out.

When I watched Guardians I kept thinking that this was a funnier lighter baby brother of Star Wars. Not as awe-inspiring, but a lighter cute version. I do remember a teacher once told the story of a student who was really excited about writing a movie where he is stuck in Monday, only to want to throw up when he looked at the trades about a little Bill Murray movie project coming out. Also, I think there was 7 Liar Liar type projects circulating at the time, but the producers told the writer that they liked their spin on it the best so they went with them.

Scott, thanks for answering this question in a blog post. I gathered from your blog that sometimes concept can be similar, but your own take and story on it might be different. It also seems like if that similar concept tanks, then it hurts you, but if that similar concept somehow is the hottest thing that actually might help you? But, if that similar title has too good of a package--starring Denzel directed by Spielberg, then you're screwed? Some of these projects are coming out at the same time, but it also seems like if one is better written, sometimes it comes out on top. I liked the Gerard Butler version of the whitehouse takeover movie better than the Jamie Foxx version. I think a ton of people had the same idea for that exact movie...and there's actually an old movie thirty years ago with that exact same plot--not sure why the producers of the old movie didn't say anything--probably why the line is so murky. Have you ever blogged about competing projects getting blown out or benefiting from a similar title? Your sex tape, vice versa and k-9 examples are very interesting.

It's also the case that a studio will acquire two scripts with the same premise, then either have the writers work on the scripts simultaneously and pick the best one, which is what happened with a project I sold to Warner Bros. called Mr. President, or merge the two projects.

I clicked through some of the links above. In one of them, you told the story of how rushing a historical drama before it was ready almost derailed your career and that you will tell how you got it back on track in a future blog. Can you tell me what link that is? I can't seem to find that anywhere.