The Truman Show rip off

[Themblues]

This is specifically for JMS, or someone on his staff, but certainly open for discussion.

Do you really feel like your Twilight Zone script, Special Service, did not get ripped off? You said that yourself on this board. Did you try to get credit? I remember seeing the movie thinking, "Wow that's cool! They adapted that Twilight Zone episode I saw." Then there was no mention of an adapted screenplay. Written by Andrew Niccol?? It was exactly the same story, with a smaller budget and running time. Come on! What gives?

[frulad]

You can say that again!

Seriously, though, as far as anyone knows, JMS does not read these boards. He only posts at the moderate newsgroup.

As for Truman Show, I don't recall him ever mentioning it.

[Jan]

(duplicate thread deleted) Welcome, Themblues. As Frulad said, JMS doesn't post here and as far as we know, doesn't read here either. You can get some information on posting to the moderated newsgroup here, if you're interested.

This is the only mention I can find of JMS and the Truman show regarding their similarity:

"Special Service" was a good script that got played wrong on pretty much every level (though it's interesting to look at in light of The Truman Show, which came much later).

Here's an interesting post about "Sleeping in Light" not winning the Dramatic Presentation Hugo award which was won by "The Truman Show". http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-718&query=truman

Jan

[JoeD80]

I found another quote from jms about that:

The Truman Show, also nominated, doesn't present any new ideas...heck, I did a TWILIGHT ZONE episode in 88 that had *exactly* the same story and structure (simultaneous creation, I'm not saying it was cribbed, it wasn't).

[Themblues]

Oops

Sorry, I thought he did, as one of the posts quoted above came from him. Oh well. I was just wondering how this complete rip off was allowed to go through. I mean there has to be a story. If you've seen the episode, you'll know what I mean. They certainly fleshed it out with The Truman Show no doubt, but it's a carbon copy of the "meat" of the story in Special Service, right down to specific actions of some of the characters. I mean most Philip K Dick and Stephen King stories are way further away from the film than Truman Show was from Special Service. Cameron lost on The Terminator (which I thought was complete B.S.) , how did this not get to trial?

[JoeD80]

I mean there has to be a story. If you've seen the episode, you'll know what I mean. They certainly fleshed it out with The Truman Show no doubt, but it's a carbon copy of the "meat" of the story in Special Service, right down to specific actions of some of the characters.

Like jms said, he figured they didn't rip him off. I think it would have been up to CBS anyway as the production company responsible for Twilight Zone to sue Paramount if they felt the story was plagiarised, which now as of 2006 would be impossible to do since CBS and Paramount are now the same company.

Cameron lost on The Terminator (which I thought was complete B.S.)

I'm not sure which part you are saying is BS here? What happened in this case was that Cameron said specifically while promoting the movie that The Terminator was based on a couple of Outer Limits episodes, which both happened to be Harlan Ellison episodes. Ellison then sued but Cameron and Ellison reached a settlement early on to put a credit in the movie for Ellison, which was along the lines of "acknowledging the works of Ellison." There wasn't any trial for Cameron to lose since a settlement was already reached.

[Jan]

Sorry, I thought he did, as one of the posts quoted above came from him.

This site, JMSnews.com has JMS's permission to archive his posts so many of us tend to search the archives and quote his posts.

... how did this not get to trial?

Somebody would have had to sue first. Apparently they didn't.

Jan