I’m a great fan of movies.
After so many years of watching films I decided to write something. One day
I conceived a subject. I developed it in my mind until I decided to write
it down. But, unfortunately or fortunately, I saw VANILLA
SKY. My main story
and character is very much like that film. Even some details are exactly
the same. What would you do if you watched a movie that is very close to
the
story you’re writing?
–Anonymous
A philosopher who’s studied up on
the nascent field of memetics might argue that people don’t actually think of
ideas. The ideas are already out there, competing with each other to get people
to think them.
In the case of your movie, there was an idea floating out there about a guy
who was experiencing life strangely because, it turned out, he was already
dead and dreaming. This idea came to you. Unfortunately, it also came to Cameron
Crowe, in the form of the Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar’s movie ABRE
LOS OJOS.
Back in college, I kept thinking about doing a movie or TV series about an
asteroid headed for Earth. I wasn’t the first person to come across this idea.
I opened the trades one day to find that ARMAGEDDON and DEEP
IMPACT were suddenly
racing into production. I was a little bummed, but reassured to think that
at least I was capable of a commercial idea.
If you’re halfway through a script and you see a movie that is almost exactly
your story, then you have fair reason to moan and cry and tear your hair out.
In general, though, writers who abandon one of their projects because "it
was too much like" whatever, were just looking for an easy excuse to stop
writing it.