Movies that ruined your life as a writer?

[The Next Big Ching]

I'm sure it's happened to many of you guys...you were working on or wrote a script which you thought was original and couldn't wait to try to get it out there.

Then you find out about another movie which the exact same storyline/concept as yours which makes you want to pound your head into a random blunt object...or maybe not.

A friend of mine was working on a novel about a lonely guy that cleans up crime scenes for a living...then came Sunshine Cleaning.

As for me, I used to work at an amusement park, so one day I decide to write a script heavily based on my experience there. I wrote an ensemble script about one day at the amusement park through the eyes of a games employee, a manager, a blind date, and a family, where the father is very unenthusiastic about how much money a day at the amusement park sucks out.

Then came Adventureland...which actually turned out to be a very good movie. A part of me thought, "Hey, if this movie's a hit maybe my script might have a chance."......then the movie did poorly at the box office.

Anyways, post some of your stories, because I'm sure there are more of these out there.

[wcmartell]

SUNSHINE CLEANING was a rip-off of CURDLED (just with a LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE plotline).

So, what would be the problem with doing some other type of story in that arena?

- Bill

[EvilRbt]

I was a little annoyed when THE LOST SQUAD sold to Rogue in 2007 because I had written a similarly-themed project THE LOST PATROL in 1999 and it had bounced around from producer to producer ever since. THE LOST SQUAD sold because, surprise-surprise, it was a comic book, first written in 2005.

Fortunately, Legendary Pictures snapped up THE LOST PATROL last summer and I think it is both a better project and more likely to be produced than THE LOST SQUAD. Only time will tell.

The lesson here: whatever idea you have, someone else has it too.

I remember several years ago I read two completely unrelated scripts for New Regency in the same day and they both had the exact same premise!

[The Next Big Ching]

Originally Posted by wcmartell

SUNSHINE CLEANING was a rip-off of CURDLED (just with a LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE plotline).

So, what would be the problem with doing some other type of story in that arena?

- Bill

I've never heard of Curdled before. It's just such a crushing blow to think that you wrote something original and to find out that someone else was doing something very similar.

[Tony R]

Premonition
The Forgotten
The Reaping (especially this one)

[The Next Big Ching]

Originally Posted by EvilRbt

I remember several years ago I read two completely unrelated scripts for New Regency in the same day and they both had the exact same premise!

Interesting...was one clearly better than the other? Oh and congrats on the Lost Patrol.

[EvilRbt]

Originally Posted by The Next Big Ching

Interesting...was one clearly better than the other? Oh and congrats on the Lost Patrol.

Yes, but neither were that good. I'd have to dig into my archives to recall the exact premise, but they were both crime dramas and it was almost spooky how similar they were.

Thanks for the congrats. Hopefully it won't languish in development hell and the cameras will roll in 2010.

[Moviequill]

Originally Posted by wcmartell

SUNSHINE CLEANING was a rip-off of CURDLED (just with a LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE plotline).

So, what would be the problem with doing some other type of story in that arena?

- Bill

yeah, if they were women, do it with men... or rookies just starting... instead of stumbling on a murder, maybe they find a cache of cash... if it was in LA, set it in Chicago... don't waste the research, just find a new angle

[wcmartell]

I was thinking rom-com.

[TheKeenGuy]

My co-writer and I were shopping an action script set in Cancun during Spring Break. Then THE REAL CANCUN, the Real World knock-off set in Cancun during Spring Break, was a giant box office failure and that killed our script.

Since then, THE RUNDOWN had quite a few similar beats as that script's plot line to the point that, when I left the theater, I ran to read the name of the production company on the movie poster to see if it was the one we had almost set the script up at.