The twin movie – think less cutsie 'The Parent Trap' and more unfortunate coincident, or at worst, intellectual property theft. Chris Wasser joined Sean Rocks on Arena to talk about what happens when cinematic déjà vu is just too obvious to ignore.
"Twin films are two films that are very similar plot-wise. They deal with the same themes, they might have the same outcome, they have different casts obviously and they're distributed by different studios, rival studios, but they're released within months of each other."
Take 'Armageddon', in which NASA must save Earth from a comet or 'Deep Impact', in which NASA must save Earth from a comet and you get the picture. "When two films come along that leave audiences thinking, why have studios spent so much money basically making the same film twice, that's the twin film phenomenon," said Chris.
Then there's 'Ants' and 'A Bug's Life', similar plot, same release year. Chris described the "sinister background" in which disgruntled Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg co-founded DreamWorks, taking a little something with him – "plans for an undeveloped film about animated ants." What resulted was a race to the box office for the two studios and essentially, the same film made twice!
Click here to listen to Chris’ chat in full.