When Movies Come In Pairs: Examples of Hollywood Deja Vu
For as long as I can remember there has been a strange phenomenon going on in Hollywood that I’ve never completely understood. I’m sure you too have experienced that twinge of deja vu when a movie hits theatres, and it reminds you of another similar flick that you saw only a few months ago. Now I’m not talking about trends or blatant rip-offs here, I’m talking about something a little more mysterious and puzzling: situations where it was seemingly impossible for one movie to be an attempt at capitalizing on the success of the other, because they both would have been in production at the exact same time.
Call it synergy, call it corporate espionage, or just mere coincidence… hey, I don’t have the answers, but I do have a collection of uncanny examples from years past. These are some of the “coincidental clones” that I could think of, most of them released less than a year apart. Can you think of any others?
1998 was the year Hollywood became obsessed with a catastrophic asteroid collision after scientists found a real asteroid that would pass within 30,000 miles of Earth in 2028.
Also in 1998, Dreamworks and Pixar had their first head to head battle. Pixar won handily, assuming you’re judging by box office numbers.
In 2003/2004, they both decided to move from animated insects to animated fish. Coincidence? I wonder.
Back in 1989, audiences were captivated by two heart-warming tales of hardened police officers and their reluctant canine counterparts. I always liked K9 best, but Tom Hanks was the bigger draw in Turner & Hooch.
The 80’s were awash with “body swap” stories, but these both happened to involve a father and son trading places with hilarious results (and were released mere months apart).
Admittedly, the similarities here are a bit more pre-meditated since both movies shared some of the same writers, but cute robot adventures just seemed to be on everyone’s minds between 86 and 87.
Remarkably similar concepts, except that one is aware he is on TV while the other is not. In some ways these movies were prophetic of the reality TV boom that would follow only a year or two later.
How is it that two different studios came to the conclusion that the world needed a movie about volcanoes… at the exact same time? (They were both wrong.)
Although Alexander Bulkley’s take on the zodiac serial killer story beat David Fincher’s Zodiac to market by almost a year, it failed to steal the spotlight.
Similarly, David Michael Latt’s retelling of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds was severely overshadowed by the Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise version, even though it was in production first.
Douglas McGrath’s Truman Capote biopic Infamous didn’t even have the advantage of being released first in this case. Pretty tough to convince people you have something new to offer when the other Capote biopic landed its lead actor an Oscar.
Vastly different movies, and yet, how do you explain two major movies about turn of the century magicians being released in the same year?
I suppose it only makes sense that once someone had the balls to greenlight a 9/11 movie, another studio would try and elbow in on the action too.
The shared premise between The Signal and Stephen King’s novel Cell appear to be coincidental, but Eli Roth may want to consider waiting on the feature film adaptation of Cell.
Comments (38)
speaking of Infamous, i finally saw it. (thast a great poster btw) - its really good actually, it has its own weaknesses but i’m glad i saw it. it certainly takes different liberties, in some places goes to far, and lacks subtlety that Capote had in droves through better filmmaking choices, but its still worthy viewing and a hell of a lot funnier and a hell of a lot less soul crushing.
Posted by Goon on March 7th, 2007You have way more than I could remember there had been. It’s definitely a weird thing, but with so many movies coming out, I guess it’s to be expected that once in a while 2 very similar movies will be released within 12 months of eachother. There’s only 12 scripts in hollywood anyway, right?
That United 93 poster probably is my favourite poster of 2006 though. It’s even better than the Hard Candy one. I want to use it for wallpaper. Not on my computer, but actual wallpaper.
Posted by Henrik on March 7th, 2007Actually there is another one I just thought of. It was Scary Movie and another movie called Shriek, which I think was direct-to-video here, but may have had a release in the US, starring the hot bitch from Beverly Hills. I remember my friend renting it, and it had a funny scene where the killer is chasing somebody on a track’n'field arena. But the funniest thing about the movie is that on the case it said in huge capital letters:
“THIS IS NOT A SCARY MOVIE RIPOFF!”
And rather than having stuff about the movie itself, it explained how both movies were in production at the same time etc… So yeah, another example there I guess.
Posted by Henrik on March 7th, 2007On a somewhat related topic (not similar movie subject matter, but similar poster design) take a look at these two posters for HAVOC and BABEL.
http://www.impawards.com/2005/havoc.html
http://www.impawards.com/2006/babel.html
blatant rip-off!
Posted by Brian on March 7th, 2007“Madagascar” and “The Wild”. Madagascar was ok but The Wild bombed. I do wonder tho that if I had watched The Wild before Madagascar, would I have enjoyed it more.
Oh!… and I when I saw the trailers for both Flushed Away and Ratatouille. I’m like … “here we go again”.
I’ve seen Flushed Away already. Hopefully I’m not blindsided with the similar stories like the the ones I mentioned previously ( with the zoo animals escape to go on an adventure to save a friend in some far distant land [gags] ) … even tho they both feature rodents as the main characters.
The copycating seems popular with the animations these days.
Posted by Valentiger on March 8th, 20072 Joan of Arc biopics were released in 1999: ‘Joan of Arc’ and ‘The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc’ and even more surprising, there were two Steve Prefontaine movies back to back in 1997 and 1998, ‘Prefontaine’ and ‘Without Limits’ … I hadn’t even heard of Steve Prefontaine before this…
Posted by GEoff on March 9th, 2007How’s this for crazy - “a Bug’s Life” was going to be called “Bugz”. (Written up in an article for Disney Adventure)
I’ve heard the rumor that there was someone trying to sell the bug idea to Dreamworks and was turned away, thus going to Pixar and then Dreamworks does the film anyway, but this is probably not true… or is it?
However, I have to say that I find it hard to believe that there is no intentional idea stealing when it comes to Dreamworks and Pixar/Disney, particularly when it came to “Madagascar” and “The Wild”. However, apparently the latter began production a couple of months before “Madagascar”..
Posted by Zoë on March 10th, 2007Hmmm… I wonder if Dreamworks can produce movies with lightning speed, what with their horrendously bad CGI animation and in particular, texturing.
i saw FLATLINERS and JACOBS LADDER on the same day…that f**ed me up for long time…
Posted by adam (unknown) on March 13th, 2007You left out these two.
Posted by teigan on March 18th, 2007Here is a triple for you (1989): LEVIATHAN, DEEP STAR SIX and The ABYSS. The only theory that makes any sense to me is that a script is shopped around to several movie studios at the same time. The studio(s) that don’t acquire the “next hot script”, having seen it and not wanting to be beat to market, have their writers pen a similar script.
Posted by Colby on March 25th, 2007the brave one and death sentence coming out this week and next week seem pretty similar to me
Posted by tom on August 22nd, 2007I thought Aeon Flux with Charlize Theron and Ultraviolet with Milla Jovovich were pretty similar. They came out a few months apart. Both were scifis about crazy killing martial art chicks trying to overthrow the government using some far out techno weapons.
Posted by Brandon on September 9th, 2007I just thought of two movies that were released very close together: Rookie of the Year and Little Big League. The movies are a little different but they both have to do with kids and major league baseball.
Posted by Quizzylsih on October 10th, 2007And what about Angels in the Outfield???
Posted by Sean on October 10th, 2007I thought this about Deep Blue Sea and Lake Placid when they came out in 1999. Great article! Thanks!
Posted by Kelly on November 8th, 2007Two more pairs:
Posted by Gaucho on December 29th, 20071. ‘I am Legend’ and ‘Invasion’
2. ‘21 Grams’ and ‘Bounce’
Released 6 months apart…
Posted by Greg on January 6th, 20081. Tombstone
2. Wyatt Earp
The Matrix and Dark City came out very close to each other. Dark City had aliens controlling a bunch of people in a simulated earth-like environment. Good movie by the way.
The Matrix and The Thirteenth Floor came out around the same time as well.
But sometimes people may confuse the aforementioned true coincidences with “mockbusters,” primarily produced by the modern day b-studio The Asylum.
Posted by Matt on March 16th, 2008http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Asylum
Flushed Away and Ratatouille.
I would also add Big to the two movies where adults and kids switched bodies. Even though no adult was present Big came out in the late 80s.
btw, I liked Dante’s Peak.
Posted by Matt on March 16th, 2008You could also add Existenz to the trio of The Matrix, The Thirteenth Floor, and Dark City. Making in a rare quadruple feat in Hollywood coincidence (a deja-deja-deja vu.)
Here are some more movie twins.
The Thin Red Line and Saving Private Ryan.
Heist with Gene Hackman and The Score with Deniro and Norton.
Mission to Mars and Red Planet.
“Christopher Columbus: The Discovery” and “Conquest of Paradise” came out in 1992 for the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery.
Posted by Matt on March 16th, 2008The End of Days and Stigmata. Both of them were about Satanic powers and both featured Gabriel Byrne. Filming schedule must have been confusing for him.
Posted by Matt on March 24th, 2008The House on Haunted Hill (1999)
Posted by Matt on March 24th, 2008The Haunting (1999)
Night of the Headless Horseman (1999)
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Now this is just getting rediculous!
38 instance of this phenomenon on this website alone. And counting.
Posted by Matt on March 27th, 2008After The Sunset (2004)
The Big Bounce (2004)
Lighthearted mediocre movies about criminals on beautiful locations.
Beerfest(2006)
Posted by Matt on April 2nd, 2008Beer League (2006)
We Were Soldiers (2002)
Hart’s War (2002)
Big stars headlining a WWII movie.
Posted by Matt on April 9th, 2008We Were Soldiers is Vietnam. Structurally though, We Were Soldiers is extremely similar to Black Hawk Down which came out around the same time. Both pit an airdumped force of americans in hostile territory against faceless evildoers.
Posted by Henrik on April 9th, 2008Flightplan (2005)
Red Eye (2005)
Space Chimps (2008)
Posted by Matt on September 3rd, 2008Fly Me to the Moon (2008)
JCVD and My Name is Bruce
Posted by mehatch on October 30th, 2008Illusionist and The Prestige
I always wondered why this happened, does one studio hedge its bets that the other film may be great and drive its own film’s sales or hedge that the other studio’s film bombs and theirs looks better in comparison?
I just watched:
The Descent (2005) superb Horror Flick
Compared to the appauling:
The Cave (2005)
Very similar plot, group of cave experts trapped in the dark with blood thirsty monsters.
Oli
Posted by Oli on January 21st, 2009Chasing Liberty (2004) and
Posted by lane on March 1st, 2009First Daughter (2004)
stir of echoes 1999
the sixth sense 1999
those kids see dead people!!!!!
Posted by mccallos on March 17th, 2009“Tombstone” and “Wyatt Earp”
Posted by John on April 26th, 2009What about
“Dead Man on Campus” and
“Dead Man’s Curve” (The Curve)?
Now, I’ve only seen Dead Man’s Curve, but Dead Man On Campus seems to be centered around pretty much the same. Which came first, I don’t know.
Nice ‘list’ by the way! Interesting phenomenon.
Posted by Finfrosk on May 1st, 2009The Day the Earth Stood Still: 12 December 2008
The Day the Earth Stopped: 9 December 2008
3 days must be a record!
The Terminators: 28 April 2009
Posted by JudgeMan on May 14th, 2009Terminator Salvation: 22 May 2009
A lot of these posts refer to the similarity between names of these movies.
Posted by John on May 29th, 2009I wonder to what extent the names were adapted just before promotional materials were released, to mirror and evoke their potentially more exposed and successful neighbours?
A name is only a name; the content of the movie may diverge quite uniquely from the plot of the more successful neighbour but the name makes it seem like the same story.
The trend continues this year with Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Observe & Report with Seth Rogen
Posted by Russll on May 31st, 2009I’m with you on this. I’ve kept a mental list for years and whenever I share this with someone they deny it until I rattle off 10 pairs of movies.
Men in Black and Independence Day - 1 day shy of a year apart.
My theory is that they are both getting the same focus group data on what people want to see.
Posted by Kevin on June 15th, 2009Leave a Reply