Heard a new one today from the resident know it all on the Gearbox forums. The topic was movies that were clones of Alien/Aliens and somebody mentioned Aliens was a clone of Starship Troopers which I disagreed with. The said know-it-all pipes in (and he does think he knows it all) and claimed in reference to my disagreement that

Now arguing on the internet is serious business! Seriously though, has anybody ever heard this before? I read the first draft of Aliens and it was pretty similar to the final film and I couldn't think of anything that needed to be changed to avoid legal trouble with the Forever War and Starship Troopers intellectual properties.

I don't have at hand , but best to compare Cameron's story treatment to the final draft, there are some differances there, though it has been a while since i have read the story treatment...

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Pfc Glenn Allen ,
1st Batt. 69th Regiment,
Homers Hero's..
Drops so Far.... 29 and counting

Treatments are a strange beast though.

In a film class I took in college, we were given a copy of Lucas' treatment for Star Wars, and it has only the barest similarities to the final product. (To give you an idea, the concepts of Jedi, the Force, the Emperor, Death Star, Obi-Wan, Han Solo, R2-D2, C-3PO, and Darth Vader are disturbingly absent)

So, a treatment being shockingly different from the final product, or even the first draft doesn't necessarily mean it had to be changed for legal reasons.

That's my two cents.

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"Screen what? I wouldn't know screen accurate if it were driving a bus and ran me over during the parade."

LCpl. Av "Spectre" Taylor
Long Range Infantry Support

Cameron didn't hatch the story idea, Walter Hill and David Giler did that part, then hired Cameron as the writer, he wrote part of it, went off and made Terminator, and based on the end result and success of that film, hired him to direct it as well.

This is what's described on the Quadrilogy anyhow.



Don't think there was ever any litigation of that sort.

If a guy is going to disagree with you then the burden of proof lies with him, kindly ask him for 'proof' of those events... Barring that you may inform him that his so- called opinion will pass like a fart in the breese.

M

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"Stand up for something...Or get knocked down for nothing..."

Is it the same guy who insisted on Cameraliens?

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In other words tell him to put up or shut up? its another urban myth on the 'Net....reminds me of that guy who posted on a site about movie mistakes slating the film Gladiator ....he did not check his facts before posting...

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Pfc Glenn Allen ,
1st Batt. 69th Regiment,
Homers Hero's..
Drops so Far.... 29 and counting

Same guy, yes. Very very opinionated that has an answer for everything. Surprisingly he is very critical of Aliens. I think it's his least favorite of the Aliens films. I know it's petty, but I do like to be educated out of ignorance. If what he's saying was true then so be it, but I don't trust a thing he says, which is why I posted here.

LOL. Yeah sounds like dude has a petty vendetta. Probably sitting in his mom's basement surrounded by computer monitors...

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And just what's wrong with that?!

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

I dunno what you're all on about.

I see where the guy's coming from. After all, just look at Sulaco and Rodger Young. See?? Both names have constanants And vowels in them, so Cameron blatently ripped it off!

And fighting alien creatures - a definate rip-off. I mean, before Starship Troopers no-one have ever fought alien creatures before.



Can this guy give exact examples of what in his mind had to be "altered" in the original script??? I've never heard of anything like this from any other source apart from "I heard that..."

I may as well say "Hey, anyone heard that Cameron had to alter his script because they were scared it would infringe on the copyright of "Gone with the Wind?" "

The only thing I ever heard of was a few problems with Alien (like the complaints that it resembled "It, the terror from beyond space"), and the Lucas - vs - Galactica thing, which I know was a fact but seems to have grown in legend to a long, drawn-out bitter court-battle.

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Weyland Yutani Corp. Bio-Weapons Division - "Superior Weapons through Superior Genetics"

If he's on the gearbox forums, I hope he hasn't influenced the development of the Aliens: Colonial Marines game too much, as it sounds like he talks alot of crap.

While back I heard A.E. van vogt was planning to sue because he said the aliens were copied from his book Voyage of the Space Beagle.

Fact or fiction? Never read it...

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If you can't eat it, drink it, smoke it or jump it....RUN!!!

And this is the problem. Sometimes people write scripts or books, little knowing that buried in their subconscious is a memory of a story they read in the distant past, or perhaps childhood. They believe the story is their invention, everyone else has forgottten the original, he gets it published then "WHAMMO!!" someone who knows the original pipes up, and lawyers start rubbing their hands in glee!!

When I was in primary school, I wrote a sequel story to Star Wars where the Empire was constructing a second Death Star. Should I run to Lucas and say he stole my idea? This is just another fluke of writing.

One of the finest examples of this was on Star Trek:Deep Space Nine. A couple of writers went in to pitch story ideas. One of the ideas was good, but so good that they were actually filming the episode at that moment! Another team, completely independantly, came up with the same basic idea!

Happens sometimes in Hollywood, where a few studios may be working on similar projects at the same time.

The Towering Inferno is an example, where two studios were working on a huge skyscraper fire, based on two seperate books. So, rather than take a risk on bringing both films to the screen and reducing box-office returns for each, they took the unprecidented step of combining their efforts to produce a collaboration.

End of the day, no matter what is ever made or written, someone, somewhere will be able to draw similarities to things from the past.

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Weyland Yutani Corp. Bio-Weapons Division - "Superior Weapons through Superior Genetics"

Aliens, a clone of Starship Troopers and The Forever War??

Right. Because obviously there are so many similarities between the core arguments of both books, and the philosophy-free adventure romp that was Aliens...

If his argument is that it takes place in space and there are alien enemies to a Human military... He might as well add Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Glass Elevator" to the list...


On a side note, I'd LOVE to see a movie made from The Forever War. That book was outstanding. And check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forever_War_%28comics%29

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