he stole my story


i have been working for nearly five years on a script that very closely resembles the plot outline on the page. i'm just about to get funding for it and start shooting this summer.

what i want to know is how this guy got a hold of my idea (ha ha). seriously. his sounds far more elaborate than mine and my script is probably a hell of a lot more surreal than his (he worked on "the mummy" for chrissake!)

but his undoubtedly has a far bigger budget and will make a hell of a lot more money.

in my script (titled "The Race of the Insane") a man is dragged out of his home in the middle of the night, taken somewhere unknown and then repeatedly interrogated drugged and tortured over the course of a week while the men try to get him to sign an incoherent confession, but won't tell him what he's accused of.

i don't want to get into to many details...

this sucks.

i'm sure if my movie sees the light of day, i'll be criticized for copying his work. what a joke.

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Don't worry, hon. There's nothing original about your script at all.

Why be dull?

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Ha ha...I like that!

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don't speak too quickly without reading the script... my script is infinitely more surreal and far beyond horror or suspense... it delves into the inner crumbling of the mind of the victim.

We've met before, haven't we?
-The Mystery Man (Lost Highway)

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I believe the the TV series "The Prisoner" got there first - around 40 years ago...

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[deleted]

Indeed, and 'The Trial' by Kafka got there forty years before that.

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+1
immediately thought of the Trial.

then Total Recall )

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*cough*KAFKA!*cough*

Yes, not exactly original idea -- the execution might be unique, though, so don't give up!

Oh, and read Kafka's "The Trial" to make sure you don't completely copy his idea ;)


- - -

Chipping away at a mountain of pop culture trivia,
Darren Dirt.

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"Don't worry, hon. There's nothing original about your script at all."

Wow, what a bitch.

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Okay, Shooter.

-AP3-

"In the name of all writers, I'm going to kill you!" (The Player)

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I hate to rain on your parade Digital Deity but if you honestly think that your script is original then your either terribly ignorant or you just haven't seen enough films to realize that the days of seeing true originality in screenplays and scripts has come and gone. Sure there is still the rare breakthrough that manages to find some originality here and there but if you honestly think that yours is going to be one of these when your dealing with the subject of kidnapping, torture and the deterioration of a prisoners mind then you truly are ignorant. That topic more than any other has been played to death all around the world in just about every type of genre that you can fit such subject matter in. I can guarantee that your script is not original, not even close.

I don't mean to sound like a prick but your just being very naive regarding true originality today in the world of cinema. There have been literally millions of screenplays written over the last 2000 years covering every single aspect of human existence. True originality in todays world really requires nothing short of a creative genius and I am sorry but the odds that your such a person who will end up contributing an truly original screenplay to the masses is, well I certainly wouldn't bet any money on it. When or if your movie ever comes out and if you end up proving me wrong then I will be the first one to admit as much. Until then I will consider your screenplay to be no different than the other 100,000+ screenplays written this year, basically a screenplay that has been done again and again and again.

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That's all i see when it comes to people's opinions here - calling each other ignorant. What are you trying to prove? That you're less ignorant or what?? )) Lemme break it down in character: "Oh hey, I think you're really ignorant, since you think it's a revelation, that little is new in our post-modern world!"

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Okay, this is a message to all those who have posted comments or messaged me directly about the lack of originality in my script. YOU HAVEN'T READ MY SCRIPT, so what the *beep* do you know? Everyone who HAS read my script (including my investors) has told me they've never read anything like it...

In retrospect, after seeing Extraordinary Rendition, I have come to realize that it is NOTHING like my movie... Trust me when I say that I am not ignorant when it comes to movies... I have probably seen more movies than 90% of the people on IMDB... I have almost 2000 DVDs in my personal collection alone...

So, all the nay-sayers on IMDB who probably have less collective movie knowledge that my 1 month old neice need to shut the hell up... How can you make a judgement about a movie or a script when you have neither read nor seen the project?

We begin shooting my movie entitled, The Breaking, this next weekend and I can only hope that all the people trying to spread negativity and discouragement over the internet NEVER see it, so their ignorance shall maintain and they will remain to be incomplete people...

Thank you to the one voice of support on this message board. Everyone else can kiss my ass... I cannot tell you how disgusted and fed up I am with people talking out of their asses on this website... Unfortunately, I still find IMDB to be useful in many ways, despite all the mentally challenged people who choose to make comments and post reviews...

In summation, let me say that my script (soon to be movie) is neither political nor horror based... While I am completely aware that NOTHING is 100% original (not since Shakespeare, anyway), it is the nuances and small moments that make a movie unique... When I started this thread ages ago, I meant it more or less as a joke that a few people took quite seriously... Lighten up, folks, and try not to criticize those who actually take an interest in movies and moviemaking beyond talking *beep* on the internet...

We've met before, haven't we?

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[deleted]

greetings,

i am in the usa... texas, actually (we like to think of ourselves as our own country) (LOL)... but i have lived all over the world, including new zealand, south africa, ireland, the u.k., belize, costa rica and others...

i understand what everyone is saying about the script being nothing new, but the setting with the torture and all is the very basic framework on which the rest of the story is built... it isn't about the torture, per se, it's just the torture which serves as the catalyst for everything else... it really bothers me when people make unjustified criticism about aomething without having any detailed knowledge of what it's about...

as i said before, i fully understand that nothing is really original, but it's what individual writers/directors/others do with the concept that make it unique... ultimately, everything is a rip-off of shakespeare, marlowe, or the older writers in one way or another...

We've met before, haven't we?

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[deleted]

kind of... the torture fuels the fire of his mental breakdown... his falling into madness, so to speak, is shown primarily through dialogue (and dream-state monologues)(I love monologues) and hallucinations which include a character known as "Woman in the Window"... One of our actors is listed on imdb and he will be putting up a page for it and everything (has a pro account which I don't yet - putting all my money into the movie)...

Of course, we will show some of the torture to emphasise the brutality the main character is suffering, but that isn't the emphasis of the movie...

We've met before, haven't we?

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This would only be an issue if a work's quality was derived entirely from it's plot. Rather like the interminable discussions about how many of Bill Shakespeare's plays were original Shakespeare creations that line of thinking misses the point. The originality of Shakespeare's work is found in the wit, dialogue and structure, not in the regurgitation of timeless folk-tales.

eg the classic boy meets girl boy loses girl boy gets girl back again and everyone lives happily after plot, scores of movies following that plot outline are released every year and some are smash hits while others bomb.

If I was to analyse the plot of "memento" one of the last truly original movies I have seen, I'm not sure that would be revealed as a particularly new story, but the way it was told was original (Natch I wait for someone to quote another work which has been there first which they inevitably will)

The plot has had very little to do with success commercial or artistic, it is a complex combination of production values, storytelling style, acting abilities and dialogue to name a few, that determine whether a work will be artistically or commercially successful.

This plot is no different - if DDD's work has other elements outside of plot which are totally original, entertaining and the characters behave in a way that the audience recognises as true to character, then his/her movie will be successful. If it doesn't then no matter whether the story had beem told before or not it will sink without trace.

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[deleted]

There are no new stories and everything is a variation on a theme. From the brief outline he gave his plot could go off in any direction so why make such an effort to rain on his parade?

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[deleted]

I wrote a story called "Citizen Kane" many years ago and somebody told me it had already been done. I got gyped. Then I wrote a story called "Man of La Mancha" and somebody else told me somebody different than the first one already made it. Should I commit suicide?

Nothing is more beautiful than nothing.

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You want original? Ok.

An old Chinese man runs a Chinese resteraunt, but one day he is robbed. The robber ties him up in the back of the resteraunt and shoots him in the head. Only it isn't really a robbery. Its his evil young nephew who wants to take over the resteraunt for himself, so he stages the robbery to get the old man out of the way.

But instead of "going into the light" the old man haunts the resteraunt. He begins hiding cryptically worded hints about what really happened in fortune cookies. One day a young rookie cop-- no, make that a young black female lesbian single mother cop-- takes note of one of the fortune cookie clues. "Wait a minute.. What the..?"

So she eventually convinces her older male vegetarian former hippy retired drill sergeant disbarred lawyer conspiracy buff partner to pursue the leads with her.

But it turns out that the evil nephew is actualy an agent for Homeland Security who has discovered a perpetual non-toxic completely new energy source in the basement of the resteraunt which is not only enviromentally safe, but when burned releases fumes which raise seratonin levels in the populace, leading to world peace.

You see, originality is highly overrated. Run with your idea, Digi-dei. You may not win an Oscar, but it just might get you laid.

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Digital_Deity_Dramawerkz: "I cannot tell you how disgusted and fed up I am with people talking out of their asses on this website..."

You mean like (as you've now admitted) you did in your original post above?

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Where you missed the boat is thinking that YOU couldn't throw yer voice out yer ass. Anyone with talent is capable. Got no talent? You could always take up lawn bowling.

Nothing is more beautiful than nothing.

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