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Twin Movies: Similar Films That Released at the Same Time

Husky

THE Prey 2 fanatic
I'm very interested in shockingly similar films that released in close proximity to each other. Like the go-to example of Armageddon and Deep Impact, which released two months apart in 1998, both about astronauts preventing an extinction-level collision.

That same year, Antz and A Bug's Life were also released two months apart, featuring the exploits of animated ants. I personally prefer Antz, I don't think A Bug's Life has much adult appeal.

The Double, based on the Dostoyevsky novella of the same name, stars Jesse Eisenberg facing off against his own doppelganger. Released just one day later, at the very same film festival (TIFF), Enemy, based on the José Saramago novel The Double, has Jake Gyllenhaal facing his mirror image as well. Both were fantastic. Almost exactly a year before them (just a day or two off), The Scapegoat had its own doppelganger story. Go back a bit over a year, we might also include The Devil's Double, telling the (almost certainly not true) story of Uday Hussein and his alleged body double, Latif Yahia. But we also might not include that, because that's not quite a doppelganger.

We also might not include The Jungle Book and Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, as they were released just over two years apart. But here I am including them, whatcha gonna do about it.

Last year, Come Away and Wendy both released at Sundance, two days apart, with their own inventive takes on the story of Peter Pan. Wendy was pretty good, not as great as the director's previous film. Had some amazing music. Come Away was terrible. Next year, David Lowery will be releasing Peter Pan & Wendy on Disney+. High hopes for anything Lowery. Coincidentally, none of their Peter Pans are white, because Pan (2015) was so bad that it beat the white straight off the boy.

The most recent Pinocchio film released in 2019, but still Netflix and Disney+ both have upcoming musical Pinocchio adaptations. Later this year, Guillermo Del Toro's stop-motion version will drop on Netflix, and some undisclosed amount of time after, Robert Zemeckis' version will be on Disney+. I'm expecting Netflix to win this one.

How many twin movies do you know of? Pit them against each other! Which was the better film?
 

McCheese

Member
The Matrix and Dark City came out the same year, at the time I remember thinking the matrix was much better, but, now I'm not so sure. I didn't realized how much of the matrix was stolen/copied from obscure German films at the time, it's hard to rate it as high in foresight. Dark City was weird and goofy and felt lower budget than it actually was, but to this day it remains original.
 
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Rest

All these years later I still chuckle at what a fucking moron that guy is.
Poseidon with Kurt Russel, I feel like there was another sinking boat movie that same year. The Poseidon Adventure maybe.
 
Red Planet
A crew travel to mars but due to an accident they crash on the planet and a robot companion malfunctions and hunts down and kills most of the crew
stars quite a few good actors and i actually liked it


Mission to mars
dont remember much about this one but they were released in aus months apart
 

Kimahri

Banned
The truly sad part of this is that we didn't go throughthis scenario with Jurassic Park and Independence day.
 

Tschumi

Member
troy.1920x0.jpg
angelina-jolie-alexander-colin-farrell-val-kilmer.jpg.webp


Green Arrow Laughing GIF


Astonishing how bad some simple eyeliner made Angelina Jolie look

EDIT: would it trigger fanboys if I said that the entire MCU is one giant release of identical films?
 
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Husky

THE Prey 2 fanatic
There are so many movies about Ip Man. Ip Man, starring Donnie Yen, released in 2008, the same year Ip Man was also portrayed in the show The Legend of Bruce Lee. In 2010, Ip Man 2 and The Legend is Born - Ip Man both released, and Ip was also portrayed in Bruce Lee, My Brother. In 2013, The Grandmaster, Ip Man (TV series), and Ip Man: The Final Fight released. In 2019 we again got three Ip Mans (Ip Men) with Ip Man and Four Kings, Ip Man: Kung Fu Master, and Ip Man 4.
 
That time in 1989 when we got a bunch of underwater thrillers

Started with DeepStar Six in Jan 89. A couple months later was Leviathan in March 89. Then a slightly longer break until The Abyss in August 89.

DeepStar Six and Leviathan in particular being very similar movies.

And that's not even counting bullshit like Lords of the Deep.
 
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Husky

THE Prey 2 fanatic
Willow Creek and Exists are two found footage Bigfoot movies that premiered a year apart.
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
The Matrix and Dark City came out the same year, at the time I remember thinking the matrix was much better, but, now I'm not so sure. I didn't realized how much of the matrix was stolen/copied from obscure German films at the time, it's hard to rate it as high in foresight. Dark City was weird and goofy and felt lower budget than it actually was, but to this day it remains original.

I remember watching The Matrix in 1999 and when the twist came I was like "that's the exact same twist as in Dark City!". But in the early 2000s when people were shitting on the Star Wars Prequels and proclaiming The Matrix movies as flawless masterpieces, you weren't allowed to point out such things.
 

Codes 208

Member
Didnt An American Tail and The Great Mouse Detective come out around the same time?

otherwise not the same year (several apart iirc) but disney’s dinosaur definitely was trying to ape the same story of The Land Before Time.
 

Rest

All these years later I still chuckle at what a fucking moron that guy is.
How does that work? And why?
Writers write scripts and shop them, so producers know they're around. Then, industry publications like Variety have stories when movies go into preproduction, besides normal corporate spying. A studio hears a movie is being made, they have a script available on the same subject matter or they commission one, they make a movie on the same timeline as what they other movie should be.

Or, one studio calls another, says "we're making _X_ themed movie, it will do better if it has a competitor, will you guys make one? Thanks."
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
troy.1920x0.jpg
angelina-jolie-alexander-colin-farrell-val-kilmer.jpg.webp


Green Arrow Laughing GIF


Astonishing how bad some simple eyeliner made Angelina Jolie look

EDIT: would it trigger fanboys if I said that the entire MCU is one giant release of identical films?
That Alexander movie gave us Rosario Dawson boobies, it will always get a pass for that blessing.
 

Pagusas

Elden Member
Writers write scripts and shop them, so producers know they're around. Then, industry publications like Variety have stories when movies go into preproduction, besides normal corporate spying. A studio hears a movie is being made, they have a script available on the same subject matter or they commission one, they make a movie on the same timeline as what they other movie should be.

Or, one studio calls another, says "we're making _X_ themed movie, it will do better if it has a competitor, will you guys make one? Thanks."
Yep, plus they compliment each other’s marketing by raising awareness and interest of the genre/setting/theme. You get more awareness and thus interest for potentially 1/2 the marketing budget.
 

kurisu_1974

is on perm warning for being a low level troll
I remember watching The Matrix in 1999 and when the twist came I was like "that's the exact same twist as in Dark City!". But in the early 2000s when people were shitting on the Star Wars Prequels and proclaiming The Matrix movies as flawless masterpieces, you weren't allowed to point out such things.

I think The Matrix aged much worse than Dark City, but then again I was never a huge fan of The Matrix, especially the art direction and those edgy outfits.
 
The Matrix and Dark City came out the same year, at the time I remember thinking the matrix was much better, but, now I'm not so sure. I didn't realized how much of the matrix was stolen/copied from obscure German films at the time, it's hard to rate it as high in foresight. Dark City was weird and goofy and felt lower budget than it actually was, but to this day it remains original.

Dude Dark City was fantastic.
 

sol_bad

Member
They aren't movies but they literally just came out this month.

Marvel - It's Jeff!
Rj2iO1D.jpg


Nickelodeon - Sharkdog
fZMDGbo.jpg


The premise of both looks different, but amazing that they came up with the same character idea at the same time.
 

ultrazilla

Member
That time in 1989 when we got a bunch of underwater thrillers

Started with DeepStar Six in Jan 89. A couple months later was Leviathan in March 89. Then a slightly longer break until The Abyss in August 89.

DeepStar Six and Leviathan in particular being very similar movies.

And that's not even counting bullshit like Lords of the Deep.

Deep Impact May 1998 and Armageddon June 30, 1998
a3vQS7JKqlOb3MdVJHuTCP9s7Mg.jpg

1729711c46dcc2b722abd78ee1c2bcf0.jpg
 
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