the list of 9 for march 17, 2006:
NINE PAIRS OF "COPYCAT" FILMS
After Philip Seymour Hoffman's Oscar win in Bennett Miller's Capote, I imagine the folksbehind an upcoming movie called Infamous are pretty worried. Why? Because their film is,like the Miller/Hoffman project, about Truman Capote writing In Cold Blood. Oops! But whilethis phenomenon, where two features with strikingly similar storylines go into production at thesame time, is unusual for the independent film world, it's become a fact of life during the lasttwo decades in a Hollywood studio system notoriously lacking in original ideas. Here are ninepairs of the more memorable "copycats."

  1. DEEP IMPACT and ARMAGEDDON, 1998. Comet/asteroid threatensto obliterate Earth; brave astronauts set out to destroy it.

  2. VOLCANO and DANTE'S PEAK, 1997. Volcanos burble up from out of nowhere, threaten local populace.

  3. A BUG'S LIFE and ANTZ, 1998. Two computer animated movies about the trials and tribulations of an ant colony, with a nerdy ant becoming an unlikely hero.

  4. THE TRUMAN SHOW and EDTV, 1998. Ordinary Joes have their entire lives captured on television.

  5. WITHOUT LIMITS, 1998 and PREFONTAINE, 1997. Two biopicsabout ill-fated long distance runner Steve Prefontaine. Ah, 1997 and 1998: a good time to be acopycat.

  6. TOMBSTONE, 1993 and WYATT EARP, 1994. Wyatt Earp and DocHolliday engage in a brief but legendary gunfight with outlaws at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone,Arizona.

  7. 1492: CONQUEST OF PARADISE and CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS: THE DISCOVERY,1992. Boring re-enactments in honor of the 500th anniversary of the increasinglyunpopular explorer's "discovery" of the Americas. (Note how both titles even use colons.)

  8. DANGEROUS LIAISONS, 1988 and VALMONT, 1989. Adaptations ofChoderlos de Laclos' novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, about sexual corruption in 18thcentury France.

  9. BIG and VICE VERSA and 18 AGAIN!, 1988 and LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON,1987. Infamous quartet of body-swapping comedies (old guy becoming youngerand/or young guy becoming older). Guess which movie came out on top.

Copyright © Mark Tapio Kines 2011