The Confluences of Creativity

So, yesterday I went to see new movie The Grey, largely because I wanted to see how closely its story veered to the plot of a horror novel that I recently pitched (with a positive response from an editor at a very cool house) that also happens to include wolves as a major element. My story is one I've been kicking around for years and years--it originally began as a comic book pitch, but eventually I decided that it would work better as a novel. Now--in the next few weeks--I will finally begin writing it.

And of course, that's when a studio finally releases a wolf-oriented horror movie.

Sometimes, that's just how it goes. Ideas float out there in the ether, and eventually they're picked up and developed, and it doesn't mean anybody stole anything from anybody else. It just happens that way.

Which makes it doubly strange that, at The Grey, I saw a preview for something called Lockout.

Now, backtrack to 2002. I was asked to contibute a novella to a Star Trek e-book line called Starfleet Corps of Engineers (SCE). This was the first project I wrote as an original e-book, and it was later collected in a paperback with some other tales (and named after my novella: Star Trek SCE: No Surrender). In the novella, the crew of the SCE ship Da Vinci is sent to deal with a situation on an orbital prison, which has come loose of its moorings and appears to be dropping toward the planet below. At the same time, a team of Federation diplomats, and the daughter of a convicted terrorist (who was once a close friend of Da Vinci captain David Gold--in fact, he was the daughter's godfather) are visiting the prison. And the prisoners have escaped their cells and taken over the orbital platform.

Here's IMDB's brief plot synopsis of Lockout: "A man wrongly convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage against the U.S. is offered his freedom if he can rescue the president's daughter from an outer space prison taken over by violent inmates."

There are definite similarities, judging by the trailer. There's an innocent daughter on board an orbital prison that has been taken over by its inmates. The prison appears to be dropping toward the nearest planet. The solution is to send in someone from outside, who first has to figure out how to get past a highly secure prison's defenses, then to try to rescue the innocent. Of course, there are also obvious similarities to Escape from New York, etc.

I'm not saying someone in Hollywood read No Surrender and decided to adapt it into a movie, without paying for it (and of course, it belongs to Paramount, so even if they had paid for it I wouldn't necessarily know). I think that happens far less often than what I described above--similar ideas, floating about (or suspended on those theoretical strings of string theory fame). When my novel comes out, it won't have stolen from The Grey. Lockout didn't steal from me. Ideas happen, and convergence happens.

Plus, in the Lockout preview, somebody literally says, "He's the best there is. But he's a loose cannon."

I would never write such a cliched line. And even if I had, I wouldn't put it in the trailer. That's where you want your best stuff!

 

Comments

[Randy Johnson]

I've always been amazed that people think that just because they thought of an idea, no one else should. I completely understand writers not reading, or even opening, unsolicited manuscripts.

[Shiai]

Jeff, when you do media tie-in work, are you contractually obligated to not look at any fanfic related to that work? I know some publishers have taken steps to try and protect themselves against the inevitability of a fan trying to sue them for "stealing" an idea they had used in their own amateur fiction stories.

[Jeff Mariotte]

Shiai,

I've never seen any mention of fanfic in a tie-in contract. I think it's more or less understood, but not specifically prohibited.

[Red Tash]

I was going to say, "C'mon, Jeff...next you'll say you penned the line 'Turn in your badge and your gun.'' ;) Glad you saved me the trouble!

A few years ago I was at a writing conference where a VERY high profile author who shall remain nameless in this comment sold an entire lecture hall on the concept that a TV studio stole his book series for a very popular show.

And he may have been right. He said no lawyer would take the case. I felt sorry for him, I really did. I'm glad to see him successful now--especially if that did happen. It'd be great karma for thousands of new readers to read those old books and go "Hey! This sounds an awful lot like XYZ Show!" But, of course, they'd probably see him as the "ripper," I guess!

Hope all is well in your world. :)

Congrats on getting to write the new book. That's awesome!