# Adapting SF/Fantasy story into a Movie without Acknowledgment **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 9, 2019, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611 "2019-12-09T19:58:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2019, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/1 "2019-12-09T19:58:20Z")
PRANAfilm in Germany pretty famously got in trouble by turning Bram Stoker’s novel _Dracula_ intoi the film **Nosferatu** without asking permission (or paying royalties). Stoker’s widow Florence sued the pants off them and tried to get all copies of the film destroyed. Fortunately, she didn’t succeed. Since then, filmmakers surreptitiously adapting somebody else’s work for the screen without getting their say-so have done a better job of filing off the serial numbers. In what follows, it’s therefore not completely clear that the people making the movies were trying to adapt an existing work. In some cases they may just have stumbled across the same idea (as when Gene L. Coon wrote that Star Trek episode with the Gorn, and somebody pointed out that it bore a suspicious resemblance to Fredric Brown’s classic short story _Arena_, so they bought the rights to the story and changed the title.). The cases are necessarily going to be ambiguous, because when the movies HAVE been stealing things, they want that shield of ambiguity. **The Hidden** – I love this low-budget independent film, but the similarities to Hal Clement’s novel _Needle_ are too obvious – One parasite/symbiote chasing a criminal, renegade member of its species on Earth, where they both inhabit human bodies. I can’t believe they didn’t have Clement’s novel in mind. **The Brain Eaters** – We know that they were ripping off Robert Heinlein’s **The Puppet Masters** , because he took them to court, but settled for $5000 and keeping his name off the film. **Panic in Year Zero** – another low-budget SF independent film that I love, but many people (including the _SF Encyclopedia_) are sure that it lifts from Ward Moore’s stories _Lot_ and _Lot’s Daughter_. **Robinson Crusoe on Mars** – another pretty good low-budget effort, but many are convinced that it derives from Rex Gordon’s _No Man Friday_. (Ironically, there IS a “Friday” in the film) **It Conquered the World** – as I pointed out recently on this Board, this low-budget Roger Corman film features a pink lobster-clawed alien who’s really a fungus that collaborates with human sympathizers to take over the world, which makes it suspiciously similar to H.P. Lovecraft’s _The Whisperer in Darkness_. **Total Recall** – the original 1989 Paul Veerhoeven film gives credit to Philip K. Dick’s _We can Remember it for you Wholesale_, but they exhaust that material in the first 20 minutes or so. I’ve long maintained that the rest of the plot was lifted, without credit, from Robert Sheckley’s _The Status Civilization_. **The Terminator** – I love this film. Cameron admitted that he’d been inspired by things like the works of Harlan Ellison. Ellison thought he’d been too inspired by his _Outer Limits_ scripts _Soldier_ (based on his own short story of that name) and _Demon with a Glass Hand_ and sued, getting post-credits credit. **Sword and the Sorceror** – the best parts of this film were the bits they lifted directly from Robert E. Howard’s _Conan_ stories, without giving credit. There’s more Howard in this film than in all three “legitimate” Conan films combined. **Event Horizon** – Not a close match, but I swear that the scenes with the Burning Man on the space ship make me wonder if this film didn’t start life as an adaptation of Alfred Bester’s _The Stars my Destination/Tyger,tyger_. Uncredited, of course **Jupiter Ascending** – critics hated this, but I kinda like this entry from the Wachowskis. But I can’t help but wonder if it started out as some kind of adaptation of Cordwainer Smith’s _Norstrilia_ – civilization run by space-going alien super-civilization with system of feudal titles, Everyone fighting for the drug that extends life and gives youth, an Underclass of animal-derived people, and al of Earth being “owned” by a single young person). Again, no credit. **It! The Terror from Beyond Space** – I don’t really think that this is a ripoff of A. E. van Vogt’s _Black Destroyer_, because the only thing the two have in common is the Killer Alien Creature Loose on the Starship. I DO think that Ridley Scott’s _Alien_ is a total ripoff of Jerome Bixby’s _It!_, though. **Quest of the Delta Knights** – I was just watching the MST3K version of this, and you couldn’t miss the similarity to Robert Heinlein’s _Citizen of the Galaxy_ at the beginning. Of course, Heinlein himself was ripping off Rudyard Kipling’s _Kim_ **Honey, I Blew up the Kid** – I don’t really think this was ripped off from Kit Reed’s _Attack of the Giant Baby_, but you do have to admit the similarity of the imagery. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2019, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/2 "2019-12-09T21:57:49Z")
Much of the setup of _Idiocracy_ is taken from Cyril Kornbluth’s “The Marching Morons.” _Forbidden Planet_, if you categorized _The Tempest_ as fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2019, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/3 "2019-12-09T22:11:44Z")
About half of the story in the movie _Logan’s Run_ is taken from the novel _Logan’s Run_. But the other half of the story is very similar to the plot of _Glen and Randa_, a relatively unknown SF movie that had been made five years earlier. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/4 "2019-12-10T03:06:50Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > About half of the story in the movie _Logan’s Run_ is taken from the novel _Logan’s Run_. But the other half of the story is very similar to the plot of _Glen and Randa_, a relatively unknown SF movie that had been made five years earlier. That’s interesting – I’d never heard that before. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/5 "2019-12-10T03:13:07Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Much of the setup of _Idiocracy_ is taken from Cyril Kornbluth’s “The Marching Morons.” > > . There’s definitely an echo of _The Marching Morons_ in the original Veerhoeven film **Robocop** , with the criminals seeking out cheap entertainment, speaking in advertising tag lines, and the like. Plus, of course, the TV game show you keep seeing bits of has the tag line “I’d buy that for a dollar!”, which is clearly modeled on “Would you buy that for a quarter?” from The Marching Morons. Inflation, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/6 "2019-12-10T09:45:12Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Jupiter Ascending** – critics hated this, but I kinda like this entry from the Wachowskis. But I can’t help but wonder if it started out as some kind of adaptation of Cordwainer Smith’s _Norstrilia_ – civilization run by space-going alien super-civilization with system of feudal titles, Everyone fighting for the drug that extends life and gives youth, an Underclass of animal-derived people, and al of Earth being “owned” by a single young person). Again, no credit. I think this is reaching - several of those elements also occur in other SF, like the Dune series. The mode of Earth “ownership” is way different in _Norstrilia_. And knowing the Wachowskis, the animal-derived people (who don’t all seem to be any more of an underclass than the non-noble humans we see) are as likely to be derived from manga/anime tropes than from old SF. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/7 "2019-12-10T13:08:09Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I think this is reaching - several of those elements also occur in other SF, like the Dune series. The mode of Earth “ownership” is way different in _Norstrilia_. > > And knowing the Wachowskis, the animal-derived people (who don’t all seem to be any more of an underclass than the non-noble humans we see) are as likely to be derived from manga/anime tropes than from old SF. Not an underclass? The animal people were all servants. And, as in Smith, their names reflected their animal nature. Even before they told me the name of that elephant-derived steersman, I knew it’s be something like “Ganesh”. But the combination of animal people + life restoring drug + single person “ownership” of earth (with that person being ruthlessly pursued by the other side, she he/she takes refuge with the animal people) occurs in both Jupiter Ascending and in Norstrilia, and nowhere else that I know. It does no god to point out that individual pieces appear elsewhere\* – it’s the concatenation that persuades me that there’s a connection. \*The similarity between Dune and Norstrilia is definitely there. I’ve pointed it out on these boards before. Both stories started appearing as shorts in the magazines about the same time. But Dune, while it has the life-extebnding drug derived from giant animals on a desert planet, lacks the animal underpeople and the single ownership. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/8 "2019-12-10T13:22:40Z")
The TV show _Outer Limits_ episode “Cry of Silence” features Eddie Albert and June Havoc as a city couple that gets attacked driving along the desert – by tumbleweeds. Later by rocks and animals. When you describe this episode to other people, it sounds like the worst sort of science fiction, like it’s the really weird try-out for _Green Acres_, or something. “Attacked by _tumbleweeds?_ Really?” But it’s much better than it sounds. The tumbleweeds, rocks, and animals are sort of "possessed by alien beings, who finally possess an old prospector, through whom they can talk to the couple. > **["The Outer Limits" Cry of Silence (TV Episode 1964) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0667811/)** > > Cry of Silence: Directed by Charles F. Haas. With Eddie Albert, June Havoc, Arthur Hunnicutt, Vic Perrin. A married couple find themselves lost in the middle of a deserted valley and come under attacks by tumbleweeds, frogs, and rocks. What could be... > **[Cry of Silence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cry_of_Silence)** > > "Cry of Silence" is an episode of the original Outer Limits. It first aired on 24 October 1964, during the second season. > "In the not-distant future, the sound of Man will invade those unknown depths of space which as yet we cannot even imagine. In his own world there are no places left beyond the reach of his voice. His neighbor is no longer just next door, but anywhere at the end of a wire. And it all began when prehistoric man discovered the art of communication..." A city couple driving in t... As Wikipedia points out, the beginning, with the attack by tumbleweeds, resembles Algernon Blackwood’s story “The Willows”. But, overall, the episode seems remarkably similar to Fredric Brown’s novel **The Mind Thing** , with the possession of animals, and eventually a human, by an alien. Brown wrote it originally as a screenplay that he thought could be filmed with minimal and easy-to-do special effects, but he couldn’t interest anyone in it. The Outer Limits episode credits the story to Louis Charbonneau and the script to Robert C. Dennis. It was broadcast in October of 1964. I don’t know exactly when Brown was shopping his script around, but it had to be before he decided to publish it as a story. It was going to be in parts in the magazine _Fantastic Universe_[, starting in March, 1960, but the magazine folded after that issue. He published the whole novel the next year as a paperback with Bantam Books. (Although translation were published, it wasn’t published in English again until almost twenty years later in the UK. It wasn’t published in the US again until NESFA press collected Browns stories in 2002. More recently Gateway/Orion republished it in 2011.) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/9 "2019-12-10T13:42:03Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Not an underclass? The animal people were all servants. So were humans. So, seemingly, was anyone who wasn’t in the Houses. That’s not the same as the situation with the underpeople. Look, I like the movie, I’ve read up quite a bit about it, and I’ve never seen the Wachowskis cite Smith in reference to it. They talk about Alice in Wonderland and Oz, and there’s the obvious Gnosticism, but not the Instrumentality universe. And the House of Abrasax are nothing like the Lords of the Instrumentality, anyway. And Rod wasn’t a reincarnated Lord, just very rich. I don’t think he parallels Jupiter’s situation very much at all. Feudal inheritance is not remotely the same as buying a planet. I wouldn’t say Jupiter “took refuge with” animal people the way Rod did. Like I said, I think you’re reaching in your parallels. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/10 "2019-12-10T14:13:31Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > So were humans. So, seemingly, was anyone who wasn’t in the Houses. That’s not the same as the situation with the underpeople. > > Look, I like the movie, I’ve read up quite a bit about it, and I’ve never seen the Wachowskis cite Smith in reference to it. They talk about Alice in Wonderland and Oz, and there’s the obvious Gnosticism, but not the Instrumentality universe. > > And the House of Abrasax are nothing like the Lords of the Instrumentality, anyway. > > And Rod wasn’t a reincarnated Lord, just very rich. I don’t think he parallels Jupiter’s situation very much at all. Feudal inheritance is not remotely the same as buying a planet. > > I wouldn’t say Jupiter “took refuge with” animal people the way Rod did. > > Like I said, I think you’re reaching in your parallels. Welkl, I disagree. In any event, I’m not saying it was an adaptation. There’s a lot less resemblance between The Stars m,y Destination and Event Horizon. I just think they wanted to get some of the ideas and visuals into their movie , and suspect they started with that book. The similarity of visions is just too close. A weird case is _The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms_. As with all of Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion projects, it really started with his sketches and images, in this case about a prehistoric monster roaming around New York City. as usual, he got a writing team to try to string his iconic scenes into a coherent story. The film was originally to be called _The Monster from Beneath the Sea_, but then Ray Bradbury published his evocative story _The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms_ in the Saturday Evening Post, and they bought the rights to that. The story didn’t feature an attack on a city, but it did have a great title and featured the monster being called out to a lighthouse by the foghorn. (In later publication, the title of the story was changed to “The Foghorn”. Bradbury later turned it into a stage play, with the same title.) This is all kind of fortunate, because Harryhausen added a scene where the monster does, indeed, attack and destroy a lighthouse. Shot mostly in silhouette, it’s one of the more beautiful stop-motion scenes in the film. so the story definitely DID add imagery to this story. Bradbury was given credit, in this case. certainly he was paid for it. I suspect the Powers That Be figured that the attribution to The Saturday Evening Post (rather than one of those “pulp” magazines, like Astounding) added a touch of class to the production. I’m sure Bradbury didn’t much mind. He and Harryhausen had been high school buddies. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/11 "2019-12-10T14:29:23Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **It! The Terror from Beyond Space** – I don’t really think that this is a ripoff of A. E. van Vogt’s _Black Destroyer_, because the only thing the two have in common is the Killer Alien Creature Loose on the Starship. I DO think that Ridley Scott’s _Alien_ is a total ripoff of Jerome Bixby’s _It!_, though. I’ve read that some believe Scott (or one of the screenwriters?) directly lifted from another van Vogt _Space Beagle_ story – _[Discord in Scarlet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voyage_of_the_Space_Beagle#Plot_summary)_: > [@](#): > > In the third section, the ship comes across Ixtl, a scarlet being floating in deep space. It is a vicious survivor of a race that ruled a previous universe before the Big Bang, the creation of our own universe. Ixtl boards the ship, and being obsessed with its own reproduction, kidnaps several crew members in order to implant parasitic eggs in their stomachs. It is eventually tricked into leaving the ship, after all the crew have left the ship temporarily, leaving no prey left for its offspring to feed on. It seems that elements of _Black Destroyer_ made their way into Alien, as well, though. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/12 "2019-12-10T14:33:46Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > … **The Hidden** – I love this low-budget independent film, but the similarities to Hal Clement’s novel _Needle_ are too obvious – One parasite/symbiote chasing a criminal, renegade member of its species on Earth, where they both inhabit human bodies. I can’t believe they didn’t have Clement’s novel in mind… I love the movie, too, and have read the book, and think they’re dissimilar enough that I don’t see a problem. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/13 "2019-12-10T15:22:01Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **The Hidden** – I love this low-budget independent film, but the similarities to Hal Clement’s novel _Needle_ are too obvious – One parasite/symbiote chasing a criminal, renegade member of its species on Earth, where they both inhabit human bodies. I can’t believe they didn’t have Clement’s novel in mind. Bill Warren, in his seminal book _Keep Watching the Skies_, also suggests Clement’s novel as a source/influence on _The Brain from Planet Arous_. Again there’s the idea of an alien policeman pursuing an alien criminal, both of whom have possessed the bodies of human beings. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/14 "2019-12-10T15:48:56Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Bill Warren, in his seminal book _Keep Watching the Skies_, also suggests Clement’s novel as a source/influence on _The Brain from Planet Arous_. Again there’s the idea of an alien policeman pursuing an alien criminal, both of whom have possessed the bodies of human beings. Interesting speculation ---
**Author:** ![bigdog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/46a35a/32.png) [@bigdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bigdog)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/15 "2019-12-10T20:26:38Z")
The movie I Robot had nothing to do with Isaac Asimov. It was stolen from With Folded Hands by Jack Williamson ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/16 "2019-12-10T22:33:43Z")
Something I read a while ago and found again: [on Flavorwire By JenniferLewis Aug 13, 2012](https://www.flavorwire.com/317756/9-movies-that-stole-their-plots-from-the-twilight-zone) Ruby Sparks (2012) / “A World of His Own” (1960) The Truman Show (1998) / “Special Service” (1989) Midnight in Paris (2011) / “A Stop At Willoughby” (1960) The Village (2004) / “A Hundred Yards Over the Rim” (1961) Final Destination (2000) / “Twenty Two” (1961) The Box (2009) / “Button, Button” (1986) Poltergeist (1982) / “Little Girl Lost” (1962) The Sixth Sense (1999)/ “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (1962) Child’s Play (1988)/ “Living Doll” (1963) Some others: Mediocre movie **Time Lapse** 2014 has a machine that takes pictures 24 hours into the future. Classic episode **A Most Unusual Camera** 1960 has a camera that takes pictures of the future. Another Jim Carrey movie, **Liar Liar** is surprising similar to **The Whole Truth** about a used car salesman that buys a car that forces him to tell only the truth. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/17 "2019-12-11T00:08:12Z")
[Brat Farrer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brat_Farrar), a classic crime novel about a lookalike impersonating the vanished heir to a fortune. The original wasn’t science fiction. However it was completely ripped off by the 1991 \*Addams Family \*movie. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/18 "2019-12-11T00:29:47Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Something I read a while ago and found again: [on Flavorwire By JenniferLewis Aug 13, 2012](https://www.flavorwire.com/317756/9-movies-that-stole-their-plots-from-the-twilight-zone) > Ruby Sparks (2012) / “A World of His Own” (1960) > The Truman Show (1998) / “Special Service” (1989) > Midnight in Paris (2011) / “A Stop At Willoughby” (1960) > The Village (2004) / “A Hundred Yards Over the Rim” (1961) > Final Destination (2000) / “Twenty Two” (1961) > The Box (2009) / “Button, Button” (1986) > Poltergeist (1982) / “Little Girl Lost” (1962) > The Sixth Sense (1999)/ “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (1962) > Child’s Play (1988)/ “Living Doll” (1963) > > Some others: > Mediocre movie **Time Lapse** 2014 has a machine that takes pictures 24 hours into the future. > Classic episode **A Most Unusual Camera** 1960 has a camera that takes pictures of the future. > > Another Jim Carrey movie, **Liar Liar** is surprising similar to **The Whole Truth** about a used car salesman that buys a car that forces him to tell only the truth. Interesting list. I don’t agree with all of them. But **The Box** was explicitly based on Richard Matheson’s “Button Button”. They said so., and gave him full credit > **[The Box (2009) ⭐ 5.6 | Drama, Mystery, Thriller](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362478/)** > > 1h 55m | PG-13 > **[The Box (2009 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Box_(2009_film))** > > The Box is a 2009 American thriller film written and directed by Richard Kelly who also serves as a co-producer. It is based on the 1970 short story "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson which was previously adapted into an episode of The Twilight Zone. The film stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as a couple who receive a box from a mysterious man (played by Frank Langella) who offers them one million dollars if they press the button sealed within the dome on top of the box but tells them that... ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/19 "2019-12-11T01:00:28Z")
I’m pretty sure William Tenn reported that he spotted a late night movie on TV that was clearly based on one of his short stories (“Everybody Loves Irving Bommer” maybe) but when he consulted with a lawyer it was too late to do anything about it. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611/20 "2019-12-11T01:03:28Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > [Brat Farrer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brat_Farrar), a classic crime novel about a lookalike impersonating the vanished heir to a fortune. The original wasn’t science fiction. However it was completely ripped off by the 1991 \*Addams Family \*movie. Josephine Tey’s 1949 novel _Brat Farrar_ is a classic. But (due to plot elements I won’t spoil here) the _Addams Family_ movie owes more to the legend of a Romanov daughter surviving the 1918 slaughter of the Russian Imperial family, as depicted in the 1950s stage play-and-movie _Anastasia_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adapting-sf-fantasy-story-into-a-movie-without-acknowledgment/844611.md?page=2)