Does it mean I should give up if...?

[victortiti89]

One of my screenplays is similar to a movie which is about to be released...There are differences, but there are also many similarities. Does it mean I should give up on that screenplay?(eg: no longer re-write it, don't submit it nowhere, delete it, etc.)? I was really fond of that particular script. Thank you for reading this!

 

[elemental]

Don't delete it. That's happening all the time. Once I was writing some fantasy movie and then after like 3 months 3 companys released the same basic idea and I was so angry and trowed all of them away. When I saw those movies I was like okey what was that shit. And then I was angry why did I trow all away. So if it is almost the same anyway you can take time to make it better and then try to sell it or get some one to do it. It takes like 1-4 years that you get the movie out or even more. Then it is not matter so much if there is some similarities. It looks different anyway with different director and actors.

 

[Brandonmonahan]

This has happened to me so many times. Or I have written something almost identical to a movie I've never seen nor heard about. I was helping my twin brother write a screenplay for his thesis so I gave him the treatment for a comedy movie I had written and we worked from there. What we ended up with was a thriller script called cops and robbers set in Vegas about two childhood friends who grew up to be on opposite sides of the law. The cop has to go undercover help his friend rob a bank to get him out of the life of crime. We just used "Cops and Robbers" as a working title. Couple of weeks later I was on some streaming site and I saw a movie called Cops and Robbers from the early 80's I think and guess what it was about? Almost the exact same thing. There is no such thing as a truly original idea anymore but that shouldn't stop you.