Yeah, Steven Spielberg (62) is the reigning king of plagiarism in Hollywood along with Columbia Pictures. He has made it into an art that is closely followed by many. Rightly he is the trend setter in plagiarism. It is said Spielberg is one of the most notorious practitioners of the fine art of taking credit where credit is not due.
Dorothy Parker said, “The only ‘ism’ Hollywood believes in is plagiarism.” To take this argument further it is said, you haven’t arrived in Hollywood until you’ve been sued for plagiarism.
Plagiarism is big business in Hollywood and they steal creative works from remote parts of he world. The original author remains ignorant of his work being copied. Rare few coming to know of it take the director producers to court to sue them. Then there is out of court settlement and life goes on.
Plagiarise till you get caught and then settle the court case with millions made from the plagiarised movie. Whoa!
CAVEAT: All writers! Hide your stories and scripts. Don’t post them over the Internet. You never know when these predators of the third kind will plagiarise them without acknowledging and you will ever remain ignorant about it. Get your works copyrighted.
Spielberg now can be rightly called STEALberg. He rightly belongs to Hall Of Shame.
When a thief commits burglary in your house, what do you do – beat him up and hand him over to the cops? So what should be done with these plagiarists, who shamelessly steal and don’t consider it stealing- kick in the butt? Or shun their movies.
The following is Speilberg’s Plagiarism Top 10 Movie List (a la Schnidler’s List 😉 ):
10. Old Boy, 2010 – Oldboy (Chan-wook Park film South Korean, 2003)
9. BEE MOVIE. 2007 Steve Hickner – Beebylon (Henrik Wallgren & Per Umaerus script, 2002)
8. DISTURBIA. 2005 D. J. Caruso – Rear Window (Cornell Woolrich story, Alfred Hitchcock film, 1954)
7. WHAT LIES BENEATH. 2000 Robert Zemeckis – (Peter Forde aka Gerhard Pieter Ferreira script)
6. CHICKEN RUN. 2000 Peter Lord & Nick Park – Escape From Cold Ditch (Alan Davidson, 1995)
5. AMISTAD. 1997 – Echo of Lions (Barbara Chase-Riboud’s novel, 1988)
4. TORNADO. 1996 Noel Nossek –
4. TWISTER. 1996 Jan de Bont – Catch The Wind (Stephen Kessler screenplay, 1989)
3. ET: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL. 1982 – The Alien (Satyajit Ray script, 1969)
2. GREAT WHITE. 1981 Mark Princi – Catch The Wind (Stephen Kessler screenplay 1989)
1. JAWS. 1975 Steven Spielberg – Moby Dick (Herman Melville novel, 1851)
The following plagiarism list is by other directors.
BIG FAT LIAR, 2000 Director: Shawn Levy – a satire on plagiarism
DEATH RACE, 2008 Paul WS Anderson/Jeremy Bolt – Joust (Adam Stone script)
YEAR OF THE DOG, 2007 Mike White – We’re All Animals (Laura Kightlinger script, 2002)
KNOCKED UP, 2007 Judd Apatow – Knocked Up: Confessions of a Hip Mother-to-be (Rebecca Eckler non-fiction book, 2005)
SYRIANA, 2006 Stephen Gaghan – (Stephanie Vergniault script, 2002)
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, 2005 Ridley Scott – Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade(James Reston Jr book, 2001)
FINDING NEMO. 2003 Andrew Stanton – Pierrot Le Poisson Clown (Pascal Kamina children book, 1995)
BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE. 2003 Adam Shankman – Amoral Dilemma (Mary Flaherty screenplay)
ONE HOUR PHOTO. 2002 Mark Romanek – Magic Moments (John Wrathall short film, 1996)
ENOUGH. 2002 Michael Apted – Even Exchange (Allyson Turner script)
THE ANIMAL. 2001 Luke Greenfield – The Organ Donor
FREQUENCY. 2000 Gregory Hoblit – Doubletime (Bill Selby script)
THE OMEGA CODE. 1999 James Cameron – The Omega Syndrome (Sylvia Fleener novel, 1997)
LOST IN SPACE. 1998 Stephen Hopkins – Space Family Robinson (Ib Melchior script)
VOLCANO. 1997 Mick Jackson – Magma Town (Aleksandar Skocajic script, 1994)
THE FULL MONTY. 1997 Peter Cattaneo – Ladies Night (Andrew McCarten & Stephen Sinclair, 1987)
DANTE’S PEAK. 1997 Roger Donaldson – Magma Town (Aleksandar Skocajic script, 1994)
GROUNDHOG DAY. 1993 Harold Ramis – One Fine Day (Leon Arden, novel 1981)
LOOK WHOSE TALKING, 1989 Amy Heckerling – (screenplay, 1986)
COMING TO AMERICA. 1988 John Landis – (Art Buchwald manuscript)
THE TERMINATOR. 1984 James Cameron – Soldier (Harlan Ellison story, 1964)
GHOST BUSTERS. 1984 Ivan Reitman, Ray Parker Jr (theme song) – I Want A New Drug (Huey Lewis theme song)
ALIEN. 1979 Ridley Scott – Discord In Scarlet (A E Van Vogt short story, 1939, Voyage Of The Space Beagle novel, 1950)
THE STING. 1973 George Roy Hill – (nonfiction book, 1941)
THE GHOST SHIP. 1943 Val Lewton – The Ghost Ship (Samuel R Golding & Norbert Faulkner play)
