My morale has been shot down :/

Judsia · Jan 12, 2010

I just read in the newspaper that Showtime is making a series on the (somewhat) same story I have been working on for years. Granted, I'm sure my story is not their story, but theirs will deal with the same time period and have a few similar historical characters. So now what do I do? Has this happened to anyone else?

Stunted · Jan 12, 2010

I mean, this might be a good thing. If the show is popular and people develop a fondness for the characters and the time period, they might be more interested in seeing your movie, particularly if the execution it's significantly different from your movie.

kullervo · Jan 12, 2010

It has happened to everyone else, usually several times. This is one reason professional screenwriters write a script in two to three months, and have several polished scripts ready to go. They aren't novels, you can be scooped, do not spend years on them.

icerose · Jan 12, 2010

Just as I wrote The End to a wizard book involving a young woman who attended a wizard school and there was a dark lord after her who had killed her parents and there was a magical book and a magical ceiling and the whole nine yards, a book called Harry Potter became famous. It happens, I'm sure a lot more than we realize. Everyone who read it always referenced it to Harry Potter and asked if it was a book written because of that. *headdesk*

Watch the series, find out what makes it that series, and change yours accordingly.

David Wisehart · Jan 12, 2010

Judsia said:
I just read in the newspaper that Showtime is making a series on the (somewhat) same story I have been working on for years. Granted, I'm sure my story is not their story, but theirs will deal with the same time period and have a few similar historical characters. So now what do I do? Has this happened to anyone else?

I've been working for years on a novel about the Borgias, and Showtime is going to do a new series on the Borgias in 2011.

Is that the one you're thinking of, too?

If so, don't worry about it. Their story will be different from yours (and mine), and will have the benefit of bringing historical characters to a greater awareness among viewers who don't normally read history.

It's all good.

Judsia · Jan 12, 2010

Yes, it is The Borgias. I just felt like someone stabbed me in the heart when I read it. It was very disheartening.

My series doesn't focus on them....just yet. It's more the time period that worries me. How many series can you have set during the Renaissance?

I know it happens very frequently (and that sucks Icerose!). I just felt like bitching. :/

David Wisehart · Jan 12, 2010

There aren't that many films or TV series set in the Renaissance, especially the Italian Renaissance. Almost nothing, in fact.

The average viewer knows next to nothing about the period. If they know anything at all about the Italian Renaissance, it's from Dan Brown, who gets almost all his facts laughably wrong.

If this series makes people more interested in the Italian Renaissance, great.

ender_finch · Jan 12, 2010

A year or so ago I finished a Buddy comedy. I sat on the idea for months. Executed it just to my liking. It was the first script I wrote that I felt very comfortable with. A week later 'I Love You, man.' is released. There were so many similarities that it made me sick. I was depressed for about a week. BUT. Then i realized.

Hey! My idea IS good enough to be on the bigscreen! And so is yours! There's a little bit of good in every situation. I hope I have helped you see it

Good luck to you!

Katrina S. Forest · Jan 12, 2010

Dollhouse, Dollhouse, Dollhouse.

Honestly, the number of times my short fiction pieces have been compared to that series is silly, especially when their "dolls" are humans and mine are robots. Still, I'm glad I have my critique group to newcomers that yes, I did write my short stories before Dollhouse, and no, they are not inspired by the series in any way.

WMcQuaig · Jan 12, 2010

I can understand what you're talking about. I have been working on a tv concept for a while now and every so often I do a google search for shows within the same genre and every so often I come up with something that make me scream a little bit.

Luckily for me though everything I find seems to have been not too long ago and the air dates they were talking about came and went. I still don't let it stop me though because I know mine is different. And if I find anything in mine that resembles those other failed ones, I change it.

Ron Maiden · Jan 13, 2010

i suppose it depends on your theme, to some degree. the Borgias have already been the subject of a big series in the UK, if you pick any interesting historical subject like that, the chances are someone else will have already done it/be working on it. i guess your trick would be to give it a new/intereting slant that makes it stand out.

Manuel Royal · Jan 13, 2010

I remember a good series about the Borgias from the BBC back in the late '70s. There's no reason a remarkable period and setting can't be revisited every so often. I guess the challenge is to provide a new perspective. (There have been any number of series and movies about Elizabeth I.)

Just before Carnivale came out on HBO, I was working on an idea about a traveling carnival during the Depression. Happens all the time.

mario_c · Jan 14, 2010

Kismet is a bitch.

Limex · Jan 16, 2010

It sucks when this happens, but you just have to accept it. There's a lot of people in the world, and a lot of us think of the same things. It's happened to me a lot, luckily I hadn't seriously started writing anything.There was a certain book that I thought would be genius to adapt, then I find out HBO's already got their hands on it. This is also why I research my idea thoroughly before I commit to it.

If your story isn't exactly what Showtime is producing–go for it.

vigilante · Jan 31, 2010

I wrote a script on the 3rd crusade and then a german filmmaker made a film on Barbarossa (leader of the 3rd crusade).

The good thing is that you can ride the wave ...if you have stuff for a book and someone wants to do a book on a "fashionable topic"...borgias, da vinci, vatican conspiration...You can get famous !

Kosh · Jan 31, 2010

Judsia said:
I just read in the newspaper that Showtime is making a series on the (somewhat) same story I have been working on for years. Granted, I'm sure my story is not their story, but theirs will deal with the same time period and have a few similar historical characters. So now what do I do? Has this happened to anyone else?

If the show is popular, someone will be looking for something similar. You saw what happened with penguins and vampires.

Lisamer · Jan 31, 2010

I've been writing something about life in a Colorado ski town. Then VH1 produced Secrets of Aspen, but my characters are at least likable!

Josh1971 · Feb 2, 2010

Judsia said:
I just read in the newspaper that Showtime is making a series on the (somewhat) same story I have been working on for years. Granted, I'm sure my story is not their story, but theirs will deal with the same time period and have a few similar historical characters. So now what do I do? Has this happened to anyone else?

Meh- don't sweat it. You can move ahead with your idea anyhow. If there could only be one of any general idea made, movies and TV would have been rendered absolutely boring decades ago.

I remember writing a script I thought was just DA BOMB! Writing it was bringing me soooo much joy, and then when I had my script-writing partner take a look at it, he was like, "Wow, it's a lot like ID4, ain't it?"

I innocently asked "What's ID4?" (Having never even heard of the movie)

So I watched it, and the first 45 pages of my script were darn near identical to it! But there, the two ideas diverged. Mine turned into more of an "Aliens meets Dawn of the Dead" where theirs went to "Apple laptop merges with Alien ships to save the day"

So keep on writing it- yours will probably be better!

jb

My morale has been shot down :/

Judsia

Stunted

Ich heiße Superphantastisch!

kullervo

minion

icerose

Lost in School Work

David Wisehart

Judsia

David Wisehart

ender_finch

Katrina S. Forest

WMcQuaig

insert something original or whitty

Ron Maiden

Manuel Royal

mario_c

Your thoughts are not real...

Limex

vigilante

A Spanish water cooler

Kosh

Will Write for Food

Lisamer

Josh1971

Delightfully Tacky...