You've got that super-genius unique idea that you just KNOW is going to make an awesome movie. Catch-22 -- to see it get made into a movie, you have to talk to people about it. Lots of people. You need to share this idea, bounce it off people, even perfect strangers. But the more people you talk to, the greater the chance that the wrong person will hear it, and take it for their own.
Is that what happened to these guys? http://gordonandthewhale.com/indie-filmmakers-claim-chernobyl-diaries-pilfered-their-idea/
I guess, hypothetically, it could all be coincidental. Personally, I think that would be too big a coincidence to be real. Somebody's idea got lifted.
If you watch each trailer on it's own, it's really just the setting that is the same. I haven't see either one, but based on the trailers, one of them appears to be a cliched horror movie, in which a handful of stupid kids gets offed, one-by-one, by supernatural-mutant-ghosts or something. The other appears to be more of a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, in which a handful of stupid scientists gets offed, one-by-one, by the last inhabitants of Thunderdome or something. Very similar structure. Different genre (or at least different sub-genre), and technically a different story. So, not the same movie. Legally, nobody got ripped off, so far as my non-expert opinion can see.
But the unique idea -- using the abandoned city of Pripyat as your setting -- yeah, looks like that was "stolen". Shitty.
So, when you've got a truly unique idea -- it could be a setting, maybe a particular part of our history that hasn't been explored, maybe a special kind of character, whatever -- how much information do you share, and with whom?
Is that what happened to these guys? http://gordonandthewhale.com/indie-filmmakers-claim-chernobyl-diaries-pilfered-their-idea/
I guess, hypothetically, it could all be coincidental. Personally, I think that would be too big a coincidence to be real. Somebody's idea got lifted.
If you watch each trailer on it's own, it's really just the setting that is the same. I haven't see either one, but based on the trailers, one of them appears to be a cliched horror movie, in which a handful of stupid kids gets offed, one-by-one, by supernatural-mutant-ghosts or something. The other appears to be more of a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, in which a handful of stupid scientists gets offed, one-by-one, by the last inhabitants of Thunderdome or something. Very similar structure. Different genre (or at least different sub-genre), and technically a different story. So, not the same movie. Legally, nobody got ripped off, so far as my non-expert opinion can see.
But the unique idea -- using the abandoned city of Pripyat as your setting -- yeah, looks like that was "stolen". Shitty.
So, when you've got a truly unique idea -- it could be a setting, maybe a particular part of our history that hasn't been explored, maybe a special kind of character, whatever -- how much information do you share, and with whom?