Luc Besson Found Guilty of Plagiarizing ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK for LOCKOUT

[Anung Un Rama]

This guy is one creepy dude

I'll never forget him

Is that Evil?

 

[ExitLUPin]

Metal Gear Solid is the only thats copied Escape From NY and been great

 

[Guestx]

Lockout is solid

Guy Pearce kicks ass

I also like Guy Pearce.

It's funny, there was a time there in the late 90s and early 00s where it seemed like he was on the verge of becoming a real star and then it just kinda didn't happen. I remember that The Time Machine underperformed and it seemed like that was the moment where the studios were like, "Okay, nope, he's not a leading man."

 

[DIABOLUS]

Wow, had no idea the two films were so similar. Haven't seen Escape from New York in forever. Saw Lockout when it came out and it was a pretty forgettable movie, Nothing to write home about.

 

[Madmick]

Lockout was one of the worst movies I've seen in the last handful of years. Besson should be glad he doesn't get credit for writing it anymore.

Agreed. Still, I don't see how anyone can justify a "plagiarism" claim, or how it even makes sense. I don't see how Lockout threatens current revenue streams for Escape from of New York.

 

[burningspear]

Escape from LA is the shit. Amazing cast, weird characters, creative SFX, dat ending ... In some ways it was ahead of its time. Shit has an ass-kicking black tranny in it for example - release it in 2016 and you're talking Oscar nominations

Was an amazing one-two with Johnny Mnemonic in the mid-90's. I watched the shit out of both of them

It's an age thing, as a teenager you love all sorts of shit.

 

[DM1982]

Lockout is solid

Guy Pearce kicks ass

Agreed.


It's just a better climax (slightly longer run time) from being a genuinely good film.

 

[aus101]

Escape from LA is the shit. Amazing cast, weird characters, creative SFX, dat ending ... In some ways it was ahead of its time. Shit has an ass-kicking black tranny in it for example - release it in 2016 and you're talking Oscar nominations

Was an amazing one-two with Johnny Mnemonic in the mid-90's. I watched the shit out of both of them

Lol Johnny. "I need to get online, I need a computer!", that could be anyone these days.

 

[JosephDredd]

My only impression of watching Lockout was that Guy Pearce was playing Brad Pitt's character from Fight Club.

Since then I've heard people saying that Lockout was basically the unproduced script from a third Escape From movie.

This is the first time I heard that it plagiarized the first Escape From movie.

 

[Xuh]

intellectual copyright in the arts is such BS nearly all the time.

just imagine how much of the greatest works of human art would be 'criminal' under these BS crapitalist laws.
nearly everything Shakespeare wrote, for instance

 

[BisexualMMA]

intellectual copyright in the arts is such BS nearly all the time.

just imagine how much of the greatest works of human art would be 'criminal' under these BS crapitalist laws.
nearly everything Shakespeare wrote, for instance

Without IP rights, what do you suggest in order for there to be incentives to create new works?

 

[shunK-1fan]

Europa Corp makes some of the shittiest movies anyway. Transporter/Taken 2 3/ etc

 

[Organic Damage]

The worst thing about this is that Besson probably unconsciously used the plot elements from Escape for Lockout, thinking he'd come up with something original. He's come up with enough unique stuff you'd think they'd give him the benefit of the doubt, but I guess laywers don't play dat.

I am always worried about doing exactly that when I write.

 

[Peteyandjia]

I remember that The Time Machine underperformed and it seemed like that was the moment where the studios were like, "Okay, nope, he's not a leading man."

I remember that movie. Went to see it opening weekend, and there were like 10 people in the whole theater.

 

[Guestx]

I remember that movie. Went to see it opening weekend, and there were like 10 people in the whole theater.

You know, I caught that one in the theater as well. I thought the movie itself was just okay but the trailers looked cool so I was surprised it wasn't a bigger hit.

To be fair, it wasn't a huge failure. On an $80M budget it made $123M, but only $56M of that was domestic. The studio was obviously hoping for more and, in fact, Guy Pearce never again had the leading role in a big mainstream movie like that.

I've heard that he's made comments saying that he has had other big roles offered to him but he turned them down because he feels more confident in smaller pictures. But if that's the case, one has to wonder why he would take such a big role in something like Iron Man 3? Maybe he just needed to get paid.

 

[Xuh]

Without IP rights, what do you suggest in order for there to be incentives to create new works?

Well first I would say there will always be incentive even with nil IP rights although obviously that's debatable.

But in cases like this, they clearly are detrimental to creativity anyway. A book/movie/album/etc will make nearly all of its money in a short time after release (which is part of why there will always be incentive - eg Dickens could make bank just by being 'first mover' of his works even if they were widley printed by others because there was no IP back then). If someone comes along a couple of decades or even just a couple of years later and uses your work as a template, then they might stand to benefit from renewed interest as people go back to check the 'original'. Artists borrow stuff from others most of the time in all fields, being able to sue them because you copied their plot or 'rhythm pattern' decades later is a joke.
For instance most Shakespeare's plays are variations on other people's work eg

Romeo and Juliet belongs to a tradition of tragic romances stretching back to antiquity. The plot is based on an Italian tale translated into verse as The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke in 1562, and retold in prose in Palace of Pleasure by William Painter in 1567. Shakespeare borrowed heavily from both, but expanded the plot by developing a number of supporting characters, particularly Mercutio and Paris.

that's not 'plagarism', it's simply how artists worked back then (and still do just with added legal hoops restraining creativity).
Likewise Led Zeppelin being sued for borrowing things here or there. Yeah they borrowed but those blues guys probably copped more then half their stuff from others too. & in the end, they made awesome music and lots of money, and brought some reknewed interest into those old blues guys for new generations. Everyone gains.
People still work like that but if they admit it they get sued eg complete BS of the 'parallel lines' case the other year (although they deserved to be sued for writing one of the worst songs ever that causes me pain just thinking about it).

 

[CerebralKnievel]

Lockout was one of the worst movies I've seen in the last handful of years. Besson should be glad he doesn't get credit for writing it anymore.

This was my first thought. I'd be embarrassed to claim anyone emulated my own work in having created Lockout. It was enjoyable as a laugh session, though.

 

[Senkoy]

Don't remember Lockout, but I remember liking Guy Piece in it. And shame the time machine didn't do well, I liked that movie.

 

[irish_thug]

The drop off from the New York to LA movies is so drastic that I just kinda pretend the LA movie never happened.

I'm that way with Highlander 2.

 

[Po]

The Departed didn't even give credit to a Hong Kong movie it was entirely based on. No plagiarism payouts there though.

None for the Tarantino movie that copied it's plot from an HK film as well.

I guess payouts only happen if you dare mess with almighty Hollywood.