So for the last couple of years as J n' I have plugged away on our script, one of our subconscious fears is that someone else will come up with an idea similar to ours, and get their film made first. After all, it happens all the time. (You can see a bunch of examples here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:ProhibitOnions/List_of_films_with_similar_themes_and_release_dates)

There seems to be a collective conscience of ideas floating around out there, and when you're busy writing away, you gotta know that someone else has plucked that same concept from the air, and is working on a story very similar to yours.

J n' I, (well mostly J), keeps up with "the trades" and is always on the look out for movies that might be in a similar vein. Any time he comes across something that sounds vaguely familiar, he'll call me over to the computer to read the synopsis and then we'll watch the trailer together, letting out a huge sigh of relief when we realize that it's nothing to worry about. Sure, there have been a few close calls, but NOTHING has come as close as what we experienced last night.

In fact, last night's close call was SO close, that I woke up this morning hoping it was just a dream.... but it wasn't. Sigh.

When J read the synopsis to me last night, for a moment I thought he had to be joking. My heart started pounding harder and harder and harder with each plot point that was similar to ours. It couldn't be true. What the hell? This CAN'T be happening!

We surfed the web for spoilers to see if there was anything else we could find on the movie. At one desperate point, we even checked out the writer/producer's names and production companies on IMDB to see if there was anyone on the list who we had sent our earlier draft to... even though we didn't think it was possible for someone to whip up something up that fast... but ya never know?

A lot of people had asked to read our script after we won the contest last year. In that time, we've signed a lot of standard legalese forms where we agreed that if Company X happens to come up with a similar idea down the road, we must understand that it was probably already in the works, and that we have absolutely no right to accuse them for stealing out idea. Because again, similar ideas happen ALL the time! (That's why there were two movies about Capote released within a year from each other.) It's also a big reason why no one will read an unsolicited script -- because the writer might turn around and say, "You stole my idea", even if their script immediately ended up in the trash bin upon arrival.

Production companies have to cover their butts. Either way, you often have to sign one of these lengthy forms whether they contact you, or, if you happen to approach them and they decide they're interested. Besides that, it's never worth it to steal someone's idea... If a producer is in love with a concept, they're better off paying the writer for the script and *then* get their own people to rewrite it to their liking.

Anyhow, I guess that's my long-winded way of saying, we know that no one would ever bother to steal our idea (not to mention, the basis of this movie is totally different), but really, can we help it if our curiosity got the better of us? There were so many similarities, it was uncanny.

The movie, "Knowing", is coming out in March 2009. And while like I said above, it's totally not the same movie as ours -- ours being a quiet low-budget drama/sci-fi movie, while Knowing is on a much grander scale as a big budget action movie -- the following plot points still threw us for a friggin' loop:

Theirs
Theirs had a main character who is a professor... actually, he appears to be a math professor. But we're keeping our fingers crossed that he's actually a science profressor, because...

Ours
Ours has a main character who is a math professor.

Theirs
Theirs has a main character who is young boy named Caleb.

Ours
Ours has a main character who is a young boy named Caleb.

Theirs
In one of the scenes it looks like they explain how an eclipse works. I can only assume the eclipse must have a big part in the movie because it's in their logo.

Ours
Meanwhile, ours has a scene where we explain how an eclipse works, as the eclipse plays a small part in our story.

Theirs
A main component of their movie involves the unearthing of a time capsule that reveals clues about the future, sending the protagnoist on a race against the clock.

Ours
We have a very tense moment in our script where they unearth a time capsule that reveals one of the final clues, sending our main protagonist on a race against the clock.

Theirs
They have a mother her daughter who have a connection to the predictions that were made 50 years earlier.

Ours
We have a mother and son who have a connection to the predictions that were made 45 years earlier.

Now, our movie has a twist at the end. And unless someone posts some spoilers online before March 2009, J n' I hope to God that we don't find out that theirs has a similiar twist ending. Holy sh*t would that ever suck!

Even though I wish this movie (which does look pretty cool, btw) would drop off the face of the earth until we get ours done, for now I'm managing to stay pretty positive. Although last night I totally thought I was going to be sick to my stomach.

I continue to have the mindset that everything happens for a reason. I know that we worked hard on our script, and while we still have a ways to go in getting it to where it needs to be, maybe the discovery of this movie is meant to help us rework our script in great new ways towards the right direction.

Afterall, we still want to shorten it, so perhaps we just ditch the eclipse scenes. It's too bad, because it's a cute scene when our protagonist explains what happens in an eclipse to little Caleb (whose name is totally gonna have to change now.) But ultimately the eclipse is not pushing the movie forward -- so let's cut it.

Then there's our time capsule scene... sigh. Dammit. That's an important scene. But maybe we can incorporate those same moments of intensity, bonding, humour, final clues, and the-boy-who-used-to-be-called-Caleb's character arc another way. I already have the first few drops of an inspired brainstorm on how we can get rid of our time capsule scene (sigh) and place all of those elements into other scenes... but I'm gonna have to wait until J gets his lazy bum out of bed before I can discuss those ideas with him. If he's like me, I'm sure he'll eventually wake up this morning hoping it was all a dream too.

Anyhow, if anything, I *know* that this is only going to push us to work harder and write smarter. I can't look at it as a loss. We have no choice but to look at it as a Universal push into the right direction to make our story better than ever before... and we will.