Twinned Movies released at the same time

[Skel1ingt0n]

I would say Everything Everywhere is significantly different from Dr. Strange. But here's my contribution:

Also "The World's End" isn't about the apocalypse. It's about how alcohol addiction and inability to live in the present can destroy you. It just happens to take place in an apocalyptic scenario.

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[NeverWas]

Dante's Peak and Volcano

 

[quik killa]

The Illusionist and The Prestige

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This is the pair that always comes to mind for me.

 

[ForgeForsaken]

I have no idea why this dark city is flipped, but here is the triplet film. I think all 3 have good ideas but 13th floor is clearly the weakest with bad execution and poor acting. The Matrix and Dark City are classics. Certainly the differences with Dark City are more pronounced than the other two but still similar themes.

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Can add ExistenZ too. Dark City I think came out a year before Matrix/Thirteenth Floor/ExistenZ though I think

 

[AniHawk]

The Illusionist and The Prestige

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i read that as 'nutting is what it seems.'

the internet has ruined me.

 

[StopMakingSense]

IIRC some of those came from literally the same script getting shopped around Hollywood. Others are just coincidence, of course.

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Yeah and also the way packaging deals can go, a deal for a script might go in a different direction/get bought out by a different company/etc. yet a producer might have already started some level of packaging and development, so you have an amount of people already bought in to doing that project so you just roll on to a new script in the same ballpark.

 

[Leclair]

 

[Psyborg]

I always found it odd that there was both a slasher horror movie and a family movie about a guy turning into a snowman. Both were titled Jack Frost. They were about a year apart.

I had a friend back then who accidentally rented the wrong one to watch with their nieces and nephews.

 

[ZeoVGM]

 

[Ruck]

I always found it odd that there was both a slasher horror movie and a family movie about a guy turning into a snowman. Both were titled Jack Frost. They were about a year apart.

I had a friend back then who accidentally rented the wrong one to watch with their neices and nephews.

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Always incredibly confusing to me as a kid at Blockbuster

 

[hiredhand]

 

[Jason Frost]

The Wikipedia article about twin films has many examples:

Twin films - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[deimosmasque]

Both allegedly based on the same guy.

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Steve Martin always looks wierd without silver hair.

 

[CJSeven]

The Wikipedia article about twin films has many examples:

Twin films - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Ah, Top Gun and Iron Eagle is a good one. I was thinking Fire Birds might be included in that, which is the shitty helicopter version of Top Gun starring Nic Cage and Tommy Lee Jones, but that was 1990.

 

[skeezx]

Antz got robbed, very underrated movie overshadowed by one of the worst Pixar movies

 

[Revolver_Ocelot]

The Illusionist and The Prestige

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This was mine for the longest time.

 

[AnotherNils]

 

[KillingJoke]

Both allegedly based on the same guy.

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Wtf i never knew this. Mind blown.

 

[Thwomp]

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Wyatt Earp is such a bloated mess while Tombstone is iconic.

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Huh, the poster for Wyatt Earp makes it look way more sophisticated than Tombstone.

 

[FTF]

The Illusionist and The Prestige

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Yup, this is what I always think of too.

 

[Z-Beat]

All release within a span of like 2 years

 

[Grue]

Haven't seen this listed yet.

Both 1998. I would say they're similar in not just setting but also theme.

 

[RobotHaus]

I worked on a TV show that was competing with another with similar themes.

Said TV show only lasted one season.

 

[UraMallas]

Con Air and Air Force One

They weren't SUPER similar but they were both big budget plane hijack movies in 1997

 

[Coolness]

Independence Day and Mars Attacks! were a couple of my favs.

 

[Dalek]

Independence Day and Mars Attacks! were a couple of my favs.

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They both had "star-studded" casts too but I would say Mars Attacks had the more impressive gets. That said Will Smith blew up after ID4.

 

[aSniperJones]

FYRE Fest Documentaries

 

[Replicant]

Haven't seen this listed yet.

Both 1998. I would say they're similar in not just setting but also theme.

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I forgot thin red line exists. I haven't seen it

 

[Stooge]

I forgot thin red line exists. I haven't seen it

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It was far more an art house pic than SPR. I think it's a great movie but SPR is top tier stuff

 

[TooFriendly]

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"One of the year's 10 Best'
is the best quote they could find?

and it stands out more than the title or actors names.

 

[Castamere]

Some of them make sense, alot are click bait. This is the end and The World's end, aren't even close. Like it's laughably to imply they were copycats.

 

[John Rabbit]

If you dig below the surface a lot of these were intentionally timed and sometimes even maliciously so, like Jeffery Katzenberg having inside knowledge of Pixar releasing A Bug's Life and rushing Antz out the door to beat them to market.

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I always assumed a lot of this was due to scripts being shopped around to various studios so word gets out about a certain idea even if a studio doesn't go with it.

 

[petszk]

First one that sprung to mind for me.
Think they were released within a month or so of each other...

 

[xir]

There was a great article in wired in 2003 I think about the script boards in hollywood
And how they feed movie twins

 

[dom]

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damn, just spoil the movie

 

[Dalek]

"One of the year's 10 Best'
is the best quote they could find?

and it stands out more than the title or actors names.

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Movie posters/VHS covers were all like this back in the day.

"EXCITING!" - Fresno Bee
"I WATCHED IT" - Lubbock Times

 

[Torta Lover]

American me and blood in blood out. They were both filmed at the same time even using some of the same crew, but blood in blood out came out a year later.

 

[DrForester]

This "Die-Hard, but on a _____" trilogy all came out in a 7 month window.

 

[Stooge]

Movie posters/VHS covers were all like this back in the day.

"EXCITING!" - Fresno Bee
"I WATCHED IT" - Lubbock Times

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There were no review aggregators at all. Top 10 lists or two thumbs up or the local paper reviews are all that existed.

I remember looking at the local paper for movie times and they would always run ads with quotes or reviews on the page next to times.

My dad's logic was 'the bigger the ad the worse the movie'. I remember Sony got caught faking quotes and reviews in the 90s

 

[Spine E Lobster]

I watched Dredd after I watched The Raid and was having deja vu. Similar setups. I love both movies but The Raid is still the best overall action movie of the last 10-15 years imo.

 

[AstralSphere]

The one that still pains me the most is the one that didn't actually happen: Prometheus and Guillermo Del Toro's At the Mountains of Madness

Apparently the studio responsible for Mountains cancelled it because it was too similar to Prometheus. Now, I liked Prometheus more than most, but if I could trade the two I would in a heartbeat.

 

[The Unsent]

Some of them make sense, alot are click bait. This is the end and The World's end, aren't even close. Like it's laughably to imply they were copycats.

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Yeah the world's end is primarily not set in the apocalypse. The pub they're trying to reach is called the world's end.

 

[Dice]

Both based on Chelsea Clinton's predicament IIRC lol
They both even have a "that guy she was crushing on was secretly in her secret service this whole time" spoiler

...Chasing Liberty might be slightly better, but Forrest Whittaker deserves another chance to direct, dammit.

 

[OneThirtyEight]

Long, long ago, when Kirk Cameron wasn't yet a punchline and Fred Savage was a child. I guess people were nostalgic for Freaky Friday, only with dudes.

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I have legit problems with how Judge is able to stand like that on that skateboard while he's doing a manual in a downwards slope.

 

[FloatOn]

Warrior and The Fighter

 

[Carlquincy]

Volcano / Dantes Peak

Edit: beaten (twice)

 

[Stalker]

I have no idea why this dark city is flipped, but here is the triplet film. I think all 3 have good ideas but 13th floor is clearly the weakest with bad execution and poor acting. The Matrix and Dark City are classics. Certainly the differences with Dark City are more pronounced than the other two but still similar themes.

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[Ulbrick]

If you dig below the surface a lot of these were intentionally timed and sometimes even maliciously so, like Jeffery Katzenberg having inside knowledge of Pixar releasing A Bug's Life and rushing Antz out the door to beat them to market.

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From what I learned at university it is often when a script gets shown to a studio/publisher without an NDA or something akin to that, it then allows the studio/publisher to take the idea and release almost the same movie.

Edit: Along with this.

I have heard the claim from people involved in one of these movies ( Erased 2012), that supposedly Taken and Taken 2 immediately had various copycats because it all was originally the same script and the same screenwriter was pitching it around so even after being turned down various different studios simultaneously still ran with the premise on their own.

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IIRC some of those came from literally the same script getting shopped around Hollywood. Others are just coincidence, of course.

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Yeah, the vast majority of these are a script getting shopped around and then someone just greenlighting their own internally developed one if they lost the bidding war. Its usually sort of shitty.

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[Sephzilla]

1998 was on some asteroid shit; no idea why it was so important to us in that moment, though. Deep Impact was actually pretty good, Armageddon, though? One of the top most annoying-to-me movies ever, such shit. Love hearing the DVD commentary where Affleck shits on it.

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Came to post this.

These movies were even released insanely close together. One was May of 98 the other was June of 98. Deep Impact is definitely the better movie but it had no reason being an early summer release.