# Was (this) inspired by (that)? Similar plots in movies/TV **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 22, 2004, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-inspired-by-that-similar-plots-in-movies-tv/230462 "2004-02-22T03:50:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![mike1dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mike1dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mike1dog)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2004, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-inspired-by-that-similar-plots-in-movies-tv/230462/101 "2004-04-24T20:14:12Z")
> [@](#): > > The Talented Mister Ripley borrowed from Polanski’s Noz W Wodzie. Actually [The Talented Mr Ripley](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0679742298/qid=1082837547/sr=8-2/ref=pd_ka_2/103-6487717-7924647?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) was a book a long time befor polanski made his movie. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-inspired-by-that-similar-plots-in-movies-tv/230462/102 "2004-04-24T20:38:05Z")
> [@](#): > > “Cast a Deadly Spell” is better than “Guise will be Guise” because there are detectives named Lovecraft and Bradbury, and it stars Fred Ward. A young Julianne Moore is in it too. Oh, and the King of the Bad Guys…David Warner. Nah, “Guise will be Guise” has Wes pretending to be Angel. Nothing can be better than that… A number of S1 Smallville episodes seemed to be lifting ideas from both **BtVS** and **The X-Files**. There was the bug boy, the girl who sucked the youth out of her victims, to name a few. I can’t remember all of them, I just remember thinking after “Nuts to this. I’ve seen all of this done before and better too…” Not that Joss Whedon didn’t borrow extensively from other sources for **BtVS** , he just tended to put a different spin on the ideas… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-inspired-by-that-similar-plots-in-movies-tv/230462.md?page=5)