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RaymondLeggs

If a movie has a similar premise and title of another movie can you be sued? Even if the other movie is 70% different than the other movie?
 
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:lol::lol::lol::lol:

No.

There's been countless movies with the same title, and a good amount of "copycat" films, which are essentially films released close together date-wise, and had pretty much the exact same plot. Most recently I can think of "White House Down" and "Olympus Has Fallen". Also, "Mirror, Mirror" and "Snow White and the Huntsman". How about "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon". "Tornado" and "Twister", etc.

There was a horror film I remember seeing once that I believe was called "Abbey". It was basically a poorly made "Exorcist" with cheaper makeup.
 
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About 5 Hansel & Gretel movies came out in a close time to each other. Fun note; they all came out before the big hollywood version came out. ( I accidentally rented one of these knock offs lol )
 
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I just didn't want to make my "Raise the Britannic" movie a few years from now and get sued by the makers of the 80's film "Raise the titanic" or by the book's writer.

I was going to change the title to "Britannic Raiders" or "the britannic job" or "Britannic hiest" as a backup since besides the basic premise the stories really don't have a common ground. Mine's more like a cross between "the italian job" "and the social network." with a bit of "21" and "Rock N rolla" thrown in.

That and my main charachter is funnier. Kind of like Mickey Mantle.

I also may write a treatment for an "Epic" version thats more mature and has a "20,000 leagues" type feel..
 
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RaymondLeggs said:
I just didn't want to make my "Raise the Britannic" movie a few years from now and get sued by the makers of the 80's film "Raise the titanic" or by the book's writer.

I was going to change the title to "Britannic Raiders" or "the britannic job" or "Britannic hiest" as a backup since besides the basic premise the stories really don't have a common ground. Mine's more like a cross between "the italian job" "and the social network." with a bit of "21" and "Rock N rolla" thrown in.

That and my main charachter is funnier. Kind of like Mickey Mantle.

I also may write a treatment for an "Epic" version thats more mature and has a "20,000 leagues" type feel..
Click to expand...

This is going to be interesting to see...
 
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Great link mussonman. Very interesting.

OP, I think you'll be good given your movie is 70% different than the other movie and it was shot in 1980.

But as GuerrillaAngel says you can get sued for anything, be it with grounds or not.

Just go for it.
 
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I have so many different versions of my own movie in my head it's crazy! Funny how someone mentioned gattaca. I started a gattaca-lite version once but never finished the treatment, because I was trying to fit in an important action sequence, but it ruined the flow of what I had..

I did bang out a "dumb action movie" type treatment once but it made no sense well it did have explosions.
 
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Wohhhhhhhh. I thought that "we had established" that you can't steal ideas because ideas aren't (and rightly so) copyrightable.

And yet that person got a chunk of change from The Terminator people threatening that he'd sue for plagiarism. Isn't taking ideas from other sources something quite different from actually plagiarizing a script?

So far I've only read this (Why do people have to make the font so damn small on their webpages?) web article on the matter. Maybe its not accurate? But if it is accurate, then it sounds like that person got his settlement not because there was any plagarism, but simply because there were a few vaguely similar and trivial ideas used in both.

I understand that it's not like it went to trial and that person's charges were vindicated by the court. Orion and Hemdale (?) just wanted it to go away etc.

But it does still intimidate, does it not?
 
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