internet database of already made movies.

[aceinc1]

hi all,

I would like to if there is any database that consists of synopsis of already made movies.

I would like to know because, it brings my over worked mind some ease as the idea is already generated and all I got to do with the synopsis is generate a beat sheet of my own. then it is off to a screenplay. now some may call it plagarism but when you execute and bring your own voice to it, I believe the story becomes different.

any help is appreciated,
regards,
Ace.Inc1

[aceinc1]

I would also like to know is there a link to beginner's guide to American culture. I would like to study it so that my screenplays comeclose to the authenticity of American culture.

[icerose]

I don't know about the beginner's guide, I think you're pretty much stuck with a personal study thing where you watch movies or come to America and observe it first hand. Movies would obviously be cheaper, just remember they've been hollywoodized.

As for the database it already exists.

imdb.com (Internet movie database) and for the script side
imsdb.com (Internet movie script database)

[8thSamurai]

I don't think there's a beginner's guide, like any other country there's just too much history for a complete overview, but there are hundreds of pop culture books out there.

One of the things with the US, is that it's a huge country, geographically. And each area has cultural quirks that are specific to that area.

[Plot Device]

I would also like to know is there a link to beginner's guide to American culture. I would like to study it so that my screenplays comeclose to the authenticity of American culture.


Ace, studying an entire culture takes YEARS. No shortcuts. But if you REALLY want to start, I have some suggestions.

I'd like to suggest you start with some children's lit (that's the school teacher in me talking ). American children's lit is heavilly skewed toward English chidlren's lit. And I'm going to assume (and I could be wrong) that since you're in India, getting your hands on English children's stories shouldn't be too much of a stretch for you.

Here's some classic kid's fiction for you to read
Mother Goose (English)
The Brothers Grimm (German)
Aesop's Fables (Greek)


Some classic adolescent-aged fiction
Greek mythology
Norse mythology
The story of Beowulf
The tale of St. George the Dragonslayer
The stories of Camelot and King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table
The story of Robin Hood


Key historical reading (this can take many years)
The rise of Greece and the creation of democracy
The rise of Rome
The fall of Rome
The Dark Ages
The rise of Christianity and the power weilded by the new Rome as controlled by the Church
The Rennaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Age of Reason
The discovery of the New World and the various early attempts at comercial exploitation of it
The Protestant Reformation
The Puritan colonization of Massachusetts (This is perhaps a very key component of the American identity. We proudly claim that our ancestors were the Puritans who came to America in search of religious freedom. This allows us Americans to make very noble assumptions about our origins, our intentions, and we even sometimes lay claim to some sort of divine destiny ordained by Heaven. We have a major holiday --Thanksgiving-- devoted to this aspect of our history. I had an Australian tell me that many of his countrymen quietly carry a dark shame in their national identities because Australia started out as a penal colony, so that means there are quite a few Australians who are the descedents of murders. So he feels we Americans have a much easier time with our heritage.)
The Thirteen Colonies
The American War for Independence (Another VERY key component to the American identity. Again we have a major holiday devoted to that part of our history -- Independence Day, and YES! the Will Smith movie of the same name is centered around that holiday.)
The Constitution (We decided to embark upon an entirely new form of government and we called "The Great Experiment" because we knew it MIGHT fail since it had never been done before. We tried it. And here wwe are today.)
The construction of the planned city of Washington D.C. as our capital. (The architecture of Washington D.C. is one of the grandest collections of Palladian architecture on the world. Palladian architecture is now deeply ingrained in our national identity. The very stately and grand design of THOSE buildings became the inspiration for the designs of the governmental buildings found in almost every other major downtown district in the USA.)
The beginnings of Industrial America (this includes the simbiotic relationship between the cotton fields of the South and the textiles mills of the North)
Lewis and Clark
The Louisiana Purchase
Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny
The rise of the railroads
The American Civil War (Most scholars of American history divide the study of it into two halves: everything BEFORE the American Civil War, and then everything AFTER the American Civil War. This is an important division to keep in mind. That war is seen as a crucial turning point for this nation.)
The Industrial Revolution gets into full swing
Huge waves of immigrants begin arriving in America from Europe and Asia






I have to stop here now, Ace. I could keep on writing out more historical stuff for you to read, but this is just SOOOOOO much material for anyone to read. But start with the chidlren's reading.

If you can get your hands on three or four American History text books from a local scool, that MIGHT be a good way to start learning American history.

[BenPanced]

Key historical reading (this can take many years)
The rise of Greece and the creation of democracy
The rise of Rome
The fall of Rome
The Dark Ages
The rise of Christianity and the power weilded by the new Rome as controlled by the Church
The Rennaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Age of Reason
The discovery of the New World and the various early attempts at comercial exploitation of it
The Protestant Reformation
The Puritan colonization of Massachusetts (This is perhaps a very key component of the American identity. We proudly claim that our ancestors were the Puritans who came to America in search of religious freedom. This allows us Americans to make very noble assumptions about our origins, our intentions, and we even sometimes lay claim to some sort of divine destiny ordained by Heaven. We have a major holiday --Thanksgiving-- devoted to this aspect of our history. I had an Australian tell me that many of his countrymen quietly carry a dark shame in their national identities because Australia started out as a penal colony, so that means there are quite a few Australians who are the descedents of murders. So he feels we Americans have a much easier time with our heritage.)
The Thirteen Colonies
The American War for Independence (Another VERY key component to the American identity. Again we have a major holiday devoted to that part of our history -- Independence Day, and YES! the Will Smith movie of the same name is centered around that holiday.)
The Constitution (We decided to embark upon an entirely new form of government and we called "The Great Experiment" because we knew it MIGHT fail since it had never been done before. We tried it. And here wwe are today.)
The construction of the planned city of Washington D.C. as our capital. (The architecture of Washington D.C. is one of the grandest collections of Palladian architecture on the world. Palladian architecture is now deeply ingrained in our national identity. The very stately and grand design of THOSE buildings became the inspiration for the designs of the governmental buildings found in almost every other major downtown district in the USA.)
The beginnings of Industrial America (this includes the simbiotic relationship between the cotton fields of the South and the textiles mills of the North)
Lewis and Clark
The Louisiana Purchase
Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny
The rise of the railroads
The American Civil War (Most scholars of American history divide the study of it into two halves: everything BEFORE the American Civil War, and then everything AFTER the American Civil War. This is an important division to keep in mind. That war is seen as a crucial turning point for this nation.)
The Industrial Revolution gets into full swing
Huge waves of immigrants begin arriving in America from Europe and Asia
a bunch of other stuff happens
Television is invented. Finally.

[nmstevens]

I don't know about the beginner's guide, I think you're pretty much stuck with a personal study thing where you watch movies or come to America and observe it first hand. Movies would obviously be cheaper, just remember they've been hollywoodized.

As for the database it already exists.

imdb.com (Internet movie database) and for the script side
imsdb.com (Internet movie script database)


Also, Ace, be sure to post all the treatments for all your works in progress so that we call write screenplays based on them and sell them under our own names, since you obviously don't think that there's anything wrong with doing that and don't consider it to be plagiarism.

NMS

[nmstevens]

a bunch of other stuff happens
Television is invented. Finally.


It's also important to understand, if your goal is to understand contemporary "American" culture -- that there is no single contemporary "American" culture -- any more than there is, I'm sure, any single unitary "Indian" culture or any single unitary "British" culture.

Are you talking about working class Brooklyn Italian, or Rural New Hampshire Yankee, or California Surfer Culture, or Inner City Chicago, or Backwoods Appalachia, or Deep South Alabama, or Louisiana Cajun or -- or Back Bay Boston.

"American" culture is actually countless different ways of growing up, ways of speaking, ways of life that even someone who's grown up in the U.S. can't possibly fully master.

For any specific place there are countless subtleties of speech that distinguish it from other places. In one part of America, carbonated drinks are "soda," in another, "pop," in another, "tonic." Some places, those things that firemen get water out of are "hydrants." In other places they're "pumps."

There are countless regional variations (not to mention ethnic variations) for enumerable little day-to-day expressions.

To set a story in a particular place means knowing how people talk in that place, how people live in that place. The tiny details of speech and life.

It's hard enough to do that even for people who share the same language. The difficulties posed for people who are writing, as you are attempting to do, from the perspective of another language, are exponentially harder.

I was once hired, as one of a group of people, by an Israeli writer, who was trying to transpose an autobiographical novel he'd written about his time growing up in an Israeli orphanage into a semi-fictional account taking place in the U.S. (apparently an agent had told him that this was the only way he'd be able to sell it in the U.S. market).

It was almost an impossibility. *Everything* was different. The way orphanages were operated. The landscape, the relationships, the world. The details of their lives. What we ended up with was a kind of "neverland" -- neither the reality of his own experience nor anything like a real America -- because we would have ended up having to throw out most of his book and he wasn't willing to do that.

I've said this before. The idea that you can sit in one country, with no more experience of another that what you've seen watching movies, and write a movie about that country -- *that the people of that country* will watch and find believable, is a forlorn hope.

Hey, I could write a movie taking place in India, never having seen more of it than I have watching some movies about it and get somebody to translate it into whatever language you speak -- but it would be a monumental act of hubris to expect that I'd be able to sell that script in your market place or that Indian audiences, about whom I know essentially nothing, would find it entertaining.

NMS

[Joe Calabrese]

Let me tell you something Ace.

No producer purposely wants to make a film that's already been done before in concept, plot, character types, etc....

They want something fresh, new and unique so when they read the script they DON'T say "I've seen this before."

Worry less about the synopsis's of movies already made and more about classic archetypal stories from throughout mankind that could seen with a fresh twist or from a new POV.

Since you are from India, I would consider a fresh take on any of the Puranas or other epic texts.

Change the settings and charatcers to present day, or an alternate future, but keep the morals and themes of the stories as a framework.

You could take the Rāmāyaṇa set in the future or alien world in a setting that takes the place of an Indian kingdom. or... you could go historical and draw from your past. You could take the basic story of Akbar and make it relevant to today's audience or a young man taking over the corporation from his Grandfather (Babur the Great) and desperately trying to live up to and even surpass his legacy.

Or you could do a bio pic on Akbar, Ashoka or any of the hundreds upon hundreds of ancient rulers, religious figures, military mights, etc...

India is rich with 5000 years of stories. Why borrow from films when you got so many good basic plots in your own backyard?

My point is there are so many stories from Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and South, SE, Central Asia that are basic stories of good and evil, creation and destruction, tragic heroes, sins of pride, etc... that you do not need to take ideas from movies who have already taken their ideas from the ancient (Star Wars = Tolkien with Greek and Asian mythos)

[aceinc1]

Also, Ace, be sure to post all the treatments for all your works in progress so that we call write screenplays based on them and sell them under our own names, since you obviously don't think that there's anything wrong with doing that and don't consider it to be plagiarism.

NMS


so you do admit that I'm good till outline/treatment. felt good. eeeeeeeehhhhhaaaaaaaaa

[aceinc1]

It's also important to understand, if your goal is to understand contemporary "American" culture -- that there is no single contemporary "American" culture -- any more than there is, I'm sure, any single unitary "Indian" culture or any single unitary "British" culture.

Are you talking about working class Brooklyn Italian, or Rural New Hampshire Yankee, or California Surfer Culture, or Inner City Chicago, or Backwoods Appalachia, or Deep South Alabama, or Louisiana Cajun or -- or Back Bay Boston.

"American" culture is actually countless different ways of growing up, ways of speaking, ways of life that even someone who's grown up in the U.S. can't possibly fully master.

For any specific place there are countless subtleties of speech that distinguish it from other places. In one part of America, carbonated drinks are "soda," in another, "pop," in another, "tonic." Some places, those things that firemen get water out of are "hydrants." In other places they're "pumps."

There are countless regional variations (not to mention ethnic variations) for enumerable little day-to-day expressions.

To set a story in a particular place means knowing how people talk in that place, how people live in that place. The tiny details of speech and life.

It's hard enough to do that even for people who share the same language. The difficulties posed for people who are writing, as you are attempting to do, from the perspective of another language, are exponentially harder.

I was once hired, as one of a group of people, by an Israeli writer, who was trying to transpose an autobiographical novel he'd written about his time growing up in an Israeli orphanage into a semi-fictional account taking place in the U.S. (apparently an agent had told him that this was the only way he'd be able to sell it in the U.S. market).

It was almost an impossibility. *Everything* was different. The way orphanages were operated. The landscape, the relationships, the world. The details of their lives. What we ended up with was a kind of "neverland" -- neither the reality of his own experience nor anything like a real America -- because we would have ended up having to throw out most of his book and he wasn't willing to do that.

I've said this before. The idea that you can sit in one country, with no more experience of another that what you've seen watching movies, and write a movie about that country -- *that the people of that country* will watch and find believable, is a forlorn hope.

Hey, I could write a movie taking place in India, never having seen more of it than I have watching some movies about it and get somebody to translate it into whatever language you speak -- but it would be a monumental act of hubris to expect that I'd be able to sell that script in your market place or that Indian audiences, about whom I know essentially nothing, would find it entertaining.

NMS

then I might as well focus on the single most element of the screenwriting. the narrative. the story and the way I decide to tell it.

from now on nobody has any right to say I'm not American, I meant on my Anmericanized (if there is such a word) stories.

let me be clearer. rent out a movie called "mobsters" and rent out a bollywood movie called "company" no difference. nobody caught it except yours truly, after that film everybody in India called that director a "mob specialist". he had one moive prior to that called "satya" (based on the mob).

regards,
Ace.Inc1

[Daydreamer]

It is SOOO tempting to comment on this thread.
But I'm nice.

So: Silence is golden.

[xhouseboy]

hi all,

I would like to if there is any database that consists of synopsis of already made movies.

I would like to know because, it brings my over worked mind some ease as the idea is already generated and all I got to do with the synopsis is generate a beat sheet of my own. then it is off to a screenplay. now some may call it plagarism but when you execute and bring your own voice to it, I believe the story becomes different.

any help is appreciated,
regards,
Ace.Inc1

Is this over and above your planned 9 or 12 (or whatever the number was) 2009 screenplays?

Just some extra curricular to perhaps fill in the spare time?

[stc]

Ace, just another data point: I dig your posts.

[icerose]

I must have read the OP when I was tired because I completely missed the taking existing screenplays and making them your own bit. Wow, I have got to read things more carefully. I thought Ace was trying to create his own database for some reason.

[clockwork]

I would like to if there is any database that consists of synopsis of already made movies.

I would like to know because, it brings my over worked mind some ease as the idea is already generated and all I got to do with the synopsis is generate a beat sheet of my own. then it is off to a screenplay. now some may call it plagarism but when you execute and bring your own voice to it, I believe the story becomes different.


I must have read the OP when I was tired because I completely missed the taking existing screenplays and making them your own bit. Wow, I have got to read things more carefully. I thought Ace was trying to create his own database for some reason.

Uh... yeah, I kind of missed that myself, Sara.

Ace: Please don't ever ask a question like that again. Plagiarism, or intent to plagiarise, is taken ultra serious here and can be a bannable offence. This is a writers'website.

I don't care how you try to phrase it/justify it. What you're talking about is wrong and won't be tolerated if you bring it up again.

/warning.

[mario_c]

rent out a movie called "mobsters" and rent out a bollywood movie called "company" no difference. nobody caught it except yours truly, after that film everybody in India called that director a "mob specialist". he had one moive prior to that called "satya" (based on the mob).
Ace, there's a lot of this give and take between continental movie markets. Look at La Femme Nikita; it was remade for USA audiences and called Point Of No Return, and for SE Asian audiences and called Black Cat. The 2007 Oscar winning film, The Departed, was a remake of Infernal Affairs, also SE Asia. I could go on.
We make fun of the Middle Eastern remakes of USA hits such as Star Wars, The Exorcist, Spiderman etc.; Jaws was remade in Italy as Tintorera, or Orca, or hundreds of other crappy movies. Thousands, no exaggeration at all, of these examples. Ripoffs that don't contribute their own voice and some real imagination get no respect. From anyone.
So have fun rewriting Goodfellas on your (obviously slight) downtime, but bring your own ideas to the meeting.

[mario_c]

Since you are from India, I would consider a fresh take on any of the Puranas or other epic texts.

Change the settings and charatcers to present day, or an alternate future, but keep the morals and themes of the stories as a framework.

You could take the Rāmāyaṇa set in the future or alien world in a setting that takes the place of an Indian kingdom. or... you could go historical and draw from your past. You could take the basic story of Akbar and make it relevant to today's audience or a young man taking over the corporation from his Grandfather (Babur the Great) and desperately trying to live up to and even surpass his legacy.

Or you could do a bio pic on Akbar, Ashoka or any of the hundreds upon hundreds of ancient rulers, religious figures, military mights, etc...

India is rich with 5000 years of stories. Why borrow from films when you got so many good basic plots in your own backyard?
You mean like this? (http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/)

[Hillgate]

Ace - you never cease to amaze me and I applaud your ingenuity and thinking. As a writer, isn't there something you're burning to write about? If so, it will really shine through in the finished product and give you something much more likely to sell.

Trying a cookie cutter approach will just not work for you: anyone that matters will discard your stuff pretty quickly. Do not attempt to write outside your comfort zone until after you've sold your first screenplay and you think you might be able to get away with it. Even then, think very carefully about it. Even switching genres can be very difficult. Most people I speak to value the niche/expertise argument (eg he's only good for romcom).

Joe's and NMS's posts are very good posts and you should listen to them.

[aceinc1]

Uh... yeah, I kind of missed that myself, Sara.

Ace: Please don't ever ask a question like that again. Plagiarism, or intent to plagiarise, is taken ultra serious here and can be a bannable offence. This is a writers'website.

I don't care how you try to phrase it/justify it. What you're talking about is wrong and won't be tolerated if you bring it up again.

/warning.


actually, I had read an article that you have to make moives of the kind that are already made so that you can say that in meetings like "this is my version of that movie. I don't mean taking the outline and then developing into screenplay. what is the work there anyway? just adding dialogue.

I meant the idea.

example: two writers on this board take the idea of "boy meets girl, boy loses girl and act 3". one will write act 3 as boy gets the girl back and the other writer writes boy doesn't get the girl (and he is happy to not get her). see the difference. on this basis I asked for ideas. not treatments or outlines to plagarize.

still, my apologies. warning noted.

regards,
Ace.Inc1

[Daydreamer]

actually, I had read an article that you have to make moives of the kind that are already made so that you can say that in meetings like "this is my version of that movie. I don't mean taking the outline and then developing into screenplay. what is the work there anyway? just adding dialogue.

I meant the idea.

example: two writers on this board take the idea of "boy meets girl, boy loses girl and act 3". one will write act 3 as boy gets the girl back and the other writer writes boy doesn't get the girl (and he is happy to not get her). see the difference. on this basis I asked for ideas. not treatments or outlines to plagarize.

still, my apologies. warning noted.

regards,
Ace.Inc1

A logline for a movie is WAY more specific than "boy meets girl, boy loses girl and act 3". The logline already shows the specific, individual twist the writer put on that particular story.

[xhouseboy]

example: two writers on this board take the idea of "boy meets girl, boy loses girl and act 3". one will write act 3 as boy gets the girl back and the other writer writes boy doesn't get the girl (and he is happy to not get her).


Or instead of making it home after phoning to tell them where he can be picked up, ET's bike flies too close to a killer bee hive when trying to clear those trees. He gets attacked by the swarm, drops back to the ground covered in bees, and in the final frame is laid out on a dissecting table.

[Hillgate]

example: two writers on this board take the idea of "boy meets girl, boy loses girl and act 3". one will write act 3 as boy gets the girl back and the other writer writes boy doesn't get the girl (and he is happy to not get her). see the difference.

Hi Ace - I think these are different genres: first is probably romcom or rom, second is...something else. I also think making the first would be a lot easier than the second.

[clockwork]

actually, I had read an article that you have to make moives of the kind that are already made so that you can say that in meetings like "this is my version of that movie. I don't mean taking the outline and then developing into screenplay. what is the work there anyway? just adding dialogue.

I meant the idea.

Yeah, except that's not what you asked for. You asked for a website which had synopses of films so that you could take them and then...

all I got to do with the synopsis is generate a beat sheet of my own. then it is off to a screenplay.

You yourself even thought that "some" might call it plagiarism so it's clear the idea of duplication was floating around in your mind. Thankfully, I can tell you no such website exists and thank God it doesn't. Writing scripts inspired by pre-existing films is a lousy way to go about your job and one which will almost always prove to be an entirely fruitless endeavour.

You should write something because you care about about it. Producers want to hear new ideas with fresh approaches told by passionate people. Not your version of last year's success that you've somehow managed to repeat but repackage at the same time and that you're hoping will still be a sustainable idea a year from now if and when the film finally comes out. I mean, you know... this sort of stuff is screenwriting 101.

[IceCreamEmpress]

Why not read the book The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker? You can order it along with the books I have recommended to you about breaking into the US film market.

[zeprosnepsid]

I've pretty much stopped replying to ace as I find it generally useless. But I suppose it is worth mentioning that plagiarism in the Bollywood film industry is extremely normal. They constantly remake Hollywood films without the right to do so. They also plagiarize songs occasionally. I'm not entirely sure how they get away with this, but it is done all the time.

(Occasionally, their ripoff remakes are even better than the original. I prefer 'Partner' to 'Hitch' for sure).

[nmstevens]

Ace, there's a lot of this give and take between continental movie markets. Look at La Femme Nikita; it was remade for USA audiences and called Point Of No Return, and for SE Asian audiences and called Black Cat. The 2007 Oscar winning film, The Departed, was a remake of Infernal Affairs, also SE Asia. I could go on.
We make fun of the Middle Eastern remakes of USA hits such as Star Wars, The Exorcist, Spiderman etc.; Jaws was remade in Italy as Tintorera, or Orca, or hundreds of other crappy movies. Thousands, no exaggeration at all, of these examples. Ripoffs that don't contribute their own voice and some real imagination get no respect. From anyone.
So have fun rewriting Goodfellas on your (obviously slight) downtime, but bring your own ideas to the meeting.


There's a difference between Point of No Return and The Departed and the others.

They bought the rights to the underlying movies. That sort of gave them the right to remake them, no less than if they'd bought the rights to a book and then made that into a movie.

We may argue about the validity of *legitimate* remakes of movies -- some are good, some are bad -- but it's not plagiarism.

And as I indicated in another post, lots of movies are inspired by other movies -- many of them for strictly commercial reasons. After "The Exorcist" there were a lot of movies about possession. After "Friday the 13th" and "Halloween" there were lots of movies about teenagers being killed by slashers.

That's also not plagiarism.

You can even take the "plot" of a movie and transfer it to a different setting (as with the plot of Yojimbo moved to the old west in "Fistful of Dollars) -- and that's still not plagiarism. Because plots aren't copyrightable.

But some things are plagiarism. What is routinely done in the Middle East and India -- essentially remaking movies, even using trademarked characters like Spiderman, without permission and without paying anything -- *is* plagiarism and is also trademark violation.

I don't know if these countries aren't signatories of the Berne Convention (which controls copyright) -- and I don't know what the deal is with the trademark issues, but if you or I were to do something like that, we'd definitely be nailed for it.

NMS

[nmstevens]

so you do admit that I'm good till outline/treatment. felt good. eeeeeeeehhhhhaaaaaaaaa


No, Ace. I was being sarcastic. I've already given you my comments in appropriate section, on the material that you've posted here.

I have no idea how any of it reads in your native language, but none of what you posted here, in English, shows anything that would get it read in any professional venue -- not by an agent, not by a producer.

Not by anybody.

If the movies that you are making are on a level comparable to what you have shown us as examples of your writing, they will also have zero chance of selling here.

The point I was trying to make, through sarcasm, which I will make explicitly, is that those of us who value our own work, and who would presumably resent it were it to be be stolen -- shouldn't make a habit of stealing the work of others.

That was not to say that your work is worth stealing. It isn't.

NMS

[stc]

"I've pretty much stopped replying to ace as I find it generally useless."

When I read Ace's posts, I think: "Same forum, different universe."

[Joe Calabrese]

Let's face it. How many times have any of you seen a film and said "I would like to write something along those lines" or "That was crap... I could write something much better" AND DID?

We all get our inspiration from many sources, whether it be a newspaper story, a book, a film, etc... But inspiration is very much different than creation by design, or formula.

If Ace is "inspired" by the half a million films ever made and wants to make his version of each and every one of them (probably 18 months of work based on his speedy work schedule) that's fine, but to tell people you are purposely doing so is asking for trouble.

Best of luck and I think this thread has run its course.

Happy Holidays everyone.

[mario_c]

Oh, and Ace, have you checked out my Black List thread? Some of those loglines may appear bad, but nonetheless serve their purpose as teasers to Hollywood's Most Wanted screenplays.

NMS, duh - just saw your reply! So ETA I looked for some kind of credit that The Departed gave to Infernal Affairs, but couldn't find it. In the interests of brevity, I won't bring up the whole Reservoir Dogs controversy, but a credited remake is a different ball of wax.
Totally in agreement in general regarding the ripoffs industry - indeed these appear to stem from outside the Convention, so they can pretty much do whatever they want. Doesn't make it right, but at least make it so we can drunkenly mock their efforts. Killer Fish, anyone?

Have a great holiday, all! (Well, those for whom these are the 'holidays'. But have a great week anyway.)

[nmstevens]

Oh, and Ace, have you checked out my Black List thread? Some of those loglines may appear bad, but nonetheless serve their purpose as teasers to Hollywood's Most Wanted screenplays.

NMS, duh - just saw your reply! So ETA I looked for some kind of credit that The Departed gave to Infernal Affairs, but couldn't find it. In the interests of brevity, I won't bring up the whole Reservoir Dogs controversy, but a credited remake is a different ball of wax.
Totally in agreement in general regarding the ripoffs industry - indeed these appear to stem from outside the Convention, so they can pretty much do whatever they want. Doesn't make it right, but at least make it so we can drunkenly mock their efforts. Killer Fish, anyone?

Have a great holiday, all! (Well, those for whom these are the 'holidays'. But have a great week anyway.)


Well, just to be pedantic -- here's the listing from the IMDb --

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407887/fullcredits#writers

Mou gaan dou is, of course, the original Chinese title -- I'm not exactly sure what the literal translation is, but it was called "Infernal Affairs" when it was released in its U.S. release.

NMS

[IceCreamEmpress]

NMS, duh - just saw your reply! So ETA I looked for some kind of credit that The Departed gave to Infernal Affairs, but couldn't find it

It was certainly well-publicized that it was a remake (or "reimagining") of the earlier movie (even though the Oscar ceremony script said that it was a remake of a Japanese (!?!) film).

And the Infernal Affairs team, particularly Mak and Lau, were widely interviewed about the success of The Departed. There was no attempt at subterfuge, and the intellectual property owners got paid for the rights to the adaptation.