Tuesday, November 16, 2010

How Not to Steal a Movie Concept

I read an interesting bit of Hollywood dirt yesterday, something which was likely common knowledge for a lot of people, but which I didn't know.

It seems that the special effects firm working on Battle: Los Angeles, which is about a group of aliens attacking that city, also decided to make a movie of their own.

That other movie happens to be Skyline which just came out, which is about aliens attacking Los Angeles. Hmmm. Interesting.

This leads me to a question: if you were a producer, would you hire an effects firm that clearly took your ideas and equipment to make a competing movie that could potentially damage your film's reception. I certainly wouldn't.

Given the box office returns for Skyline, it looks like this was really a case of career suicide for everyone involved. And I am sure Sony, the studio behind Battle: Los Angeles will be pursuing every legal option they have in their arsenal against this firm as well.

3 comments:

Semaj said...

Yeah, I think Sony might just have a case here. I had no idea the same FX company worked on the other LA Alien movie. But I did notice the similarities when I saw the trailer for Battle: Los Angeles. I thought, "isn't this movie already out in theaters?" until the title came up.

Arjan said...

..strange..

MC said...

The fact that they also used Sony's equipment is important in this too... especially if they had any delays because of damage/wear and tear on said equipment.