. . . who is pissed off that this is just a blatant rip-off of 'Some Like It Hot"? I know movies get remade all the time, but shouldn't credit be given where credit is due? I don't see the any 'Based on' in the writing credits. Maybe I'm just angry because I actually wasted money on that POS Greek movie from this Vardalas woman.
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Those are good burgers, Walter.
Shut the f*ck up, Donny.
I think you're being a little harsh with your comparison. If we accused every screenwriter of plagiarism for using the same premise/influence of other films,
the movie industry would have never evolved from Citizen Kane.
Women posing as Drag queens? What a dream come true! I think this movie looks very clever and fresh - Can't wait to see it!!!
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The fact that there was one such movie doesn't preclude another.
share[quote]I think you're being a little harsh with your comparison. If we accused every screenwriter of plagiarism for using the same premise/influence of other films,
the movie industry would have never evolved from Citizen Kane.
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I'm just curious whether you've actually seen "Some Like it Hot?"
Because this is more than just an "influenced premise" It's almost word for word a summary of SLIH...
Two guys (replace by women) witness a mob murder- dress like women and hit the road with a stage act. One man falls in love with another woman in the show and hilarity ensues.
I've seen absolutely nothing in the promotional crap for this movie acknowledging "Some Like it Hot" I just think it's ridiculous...
doc
Thank you, I have one supporter. I was beginning to worry there for a second. If no one on the Internet message boards agree with me, I must be a loser of some sort! (Too bad I don't have a sarcasm button on this thing.)
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Those are good burgers, Walter.
Shut the f*ck up, Donny.
Almost every single story idea been done numerous times. If you want a truly original concept, I suggest you catch up on your Shakespeare and movies made before the 1940s. Now a days screenwriters take familiar ideas and present them in a new and hopefully intriguing fashion. In others words, almost everything in today's cinema is derived from something else, whether from other films, media outlets, or personal experience. What makes something original/creative is THE WAY the artist presents its information.
Saying someone cannot tell a story about characters posing as the opposite sex would be equivalent to saying one you cannot tell a story about a person seeking revenge on another or two people falling in love.
In Vegas, for a girl like Ginger, love cost money.
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I thought it was too and it really ticked me off, they should at least mention somewhere it is based on that movie. I know that themes are redone many many times but they can change them somewhere for example have them witness some other crime or have them work as something other then entertaners. It's really sad that she is getting rich off of this
share"Don't believe the fallacy that plagarism and unoriginality are modern diseases."
I'm not saying that at all. In fact, what I'm saying is what makes something original is the way it presents its information. All what the writers can do now a days is take been-done ideas (I don't care where they came from) and present them in a new and fresh fashion.
There's no point in playing the "Where did original ideas come from" game, because every story idea came from some place else. The greeks probably got their ideas from religious texts or the culture that came before them. You have done nothing to disapprove my point.
"films before the 1940s - there were hundreds of remakes in that era, especially when silent cinema became obsolete and all the directors around at the time rushed to make new "talkie" versions of their films."
I don't believe that. Give some examples of remakes made before the 1940s. May I remind you that motion pictures started out back in the early 1900s as one-minute shorts.
In Vegas, for a girl like Ginger, love cost money.
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It sounds like a Some Like It Hot rip. And Nia Vadalos<sp> is an untalented whatever she is supposed to be(I, too, hated My Big Fat Geek Wedding...racist crap).
share"Greek Wedding" racist???
I don't get it. I read here someone thought My Big Fat Greek Wedding was racist.
Call me naive, I saw it and liked it a lot. In fact, I purchased the DVD. I didn't see "racism" in it. Do others here that saw the flick think it was racist? If yes, then in what way?
And about Connie and Carla...probably not such an original premise since as you say its reminiscent of "Some Like It Hot", -- but it's the new angle that counts. Vardalos' script may be a re-tread but with a new angle -- females instead of males. And the dialogue is not plagiarized from anywhere for heaven's sake! In a way, if you think about it, Vardalos did "Some Like It Hot" a favor...resurrecting it with her own spin, bringing back from the dead. Afterall, how many people of this newest generation remember or even saw SLIH?
So, I will see C&C. And I'm sure it'll be fun and funny. Afterall, that's what movies are supposed to be...fun.
We don't need to take ourselves too seriously
Bree
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You're not the first person to point out the similarities. If "Connie & Carla" really is *that* close of a script to "Some Like it Hot", I'm sure the Billy Wilder estate will file the appropriate lawsuit.
However, copyright violation of the type your suggesting is very difficult to prove because you can't copyright an idea. The following is cut-and-pasted from the US Copyright Office's website: http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html
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Q:How do I protect my idea?
A:Copyright does not protect ideas, concepts, systems, or methods of doing something. You may express your ideas in writing or drawings and claim copyright in your description, but be aware that copyright will not protect the idea itself as revealed in your written or artistic work.
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(used here under "fair use")
Likewise, you can't copyright individual words and phrases. (Although you can trademark them if thy're used in commerce.) For example, I can right a romantic comedy where the hero's tagline is "I'll be back!" No copyright problem. I can also write a story about someone who travels back in time to kill the mother of his future enemy. No copyright problem. But, if I write a time-traveling-assasin movie *and* have the character say "I'll be back!" a lot, then I'd be in deeper trouble.
Even when all parties agree a work is derivitive, it can be difficult to determine *how* derivitive. For example, on the Criterion DVD of "Brazil", composer Michael Kamen talks about how it took a whole team of lawyers to pick apart his original score to see how much of the song "Brazil" was used (and thus how much they owed in royalties).
Sometimes, two contemporary films seem to be ripping each other off. "Volcano" vs. "Dante's Peak", "Deep Impact" vs. "Armageddon", "Antz" vs. "A Bug's Life". Who owes what to whom? Take also the case of "Dr. Strangelove" and "Fail Safe". Both released in 1964, supposedly based on different books, but similar enough that laywers got involved anyway. On the other hand, the Robert Redford film "Indecent Proposal" seems to me *very* similar plot-wise to the earlier Nicholas Cage film "Honeymoon in Vegas", but no lawyers got involved there (at least to my knowledge).
It's true that after 2000+ years of literature, there's very little out there that hasn't already been done. Proving coyright violation based on similar story ideas is made incresingly difficult because of this fact.
Finally, on the subject of remakes: it should be noted that "Some Like it Hot" is itself a remake of a German film "Fanfaren der Liebe".
You just proved my point, thank you. I agree completely what you said. C&C is considered "Original" by the Writer's Guild of America, not an adaptation of "Some Like It Hot" or "Victor/Victoria," like others claim it to be.
In Vegas, for a girl like Ginger, love cost money.
I'm not sure if its a blatant rip-off, but it deos sound very similar to "Some Like It Hot".
shareum, instead of complaining, just don't go to the movie!
share One of my college theatre professors gave us a bit of advice at the end of our senior year: "Be nice to the people you meet on the way up, because they're the same ones you'll meet on the way down." The Writers Guild of America may consider it "original," even though a lot of us realize that it is essentially a slightly altered remake of "Some Like It Hot." The fact that Vardalos has not publicly acknowledged that film as the inspiration for this one--or at the very least admitted the incredible similarity in plot lines--is not going to serve her well in Hollywood. Her reputation took a beating in the press when her TV spin off of MBFGW was in its death throes (reports of temper tantrums on the set, etc). Full-scale borrowing of the plot line of a rather well-known movie by a much beloved and respected director, without acknowledging the debt owed to that film and director, is not going to help her in the least.
And the "it's all been done before" argument only carries you so far. Victor/Victoria didn't have the mob murder connection, as I recall. The only similarity to "To Wong Foo..." is the drag queen setting. With C&C and SLIH, it looks like a duck (entertainers witness mob hit in Chicago), walks like a duck (they flee for their lives, hiding out with another group of entertainers who happen to be of the opposite gender), quacks like a duck (in SLIH it's guys dressed in drag to join an all-female band, in C&C it's women pretending to dress in drag to join an all-male-pretending-to-be-female group), and in this case, it even lays duck eggs (one of the band members falls for one of the stars). Ummm, yeah, if the writer of "Some Like It Hot" or the writer's heirs are still around, don't be surprised to hear that the lawyers are getting called in.
Um, but she has acknowledged its similarities to SLIH and V/V. In many interviews.
shareNia has acknowledged both those movies in her interviews.
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XChris, you are absolutely right! I was fortunate to be at a press preview last night, and came out of the film laughing and smiling. It's not a complete rip-off, as much as a compression of a lot of films and genres that Valardos has an apparent great affection for. The claims on this board that it is actually plagiarizing "Some Like It Hot" is way overstated! There is much more involved in the Valardos/Duchovny relationship than was ever played out in SLIH. To delve into the specifics would involve spoilers that I respect the film enough to not divulge here.
The screenplay is as much a inspired by a medley of classic plots as the nightclub act is itself a medley of showtune moments the women dream to have been a part of. Varlardos has written herself into bits of "Some Like It Hot" "Victor/Victoria" "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" and even "Torch Song Trilogy". (FYI, "Priscilla..." is the only one of those not based on a stage play. Yes, even SLIH traces itself to a 1939 film, based on the 1937 play by Ben Hecht!) No, there is nothing truly innovative or earth-shatteringly original in the screenplay, except for the fact that she has given the cast a FUN script! Toni Collette's performance is breathtaking and, dare I say, brilliant! Valardos is having a blast! Duchovny and the rest of the guys all look like they're having great time! The audience I saw it with last night had shared that joy with them.
If you want to see to see something TRULY original, then I urge you to buy/rent the Criterion Collection of "By Brakhage - An Anthology." I DARE you to be able to sit through it in less than a week, much less actually have FUN watching it - BUT it is original...
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