2/27/2010

18 Comments

1. There are no new ideas.

   Comment by East Coast Chris (ded5f2) — 2/27/2010 @ 7:18 pm

2. Oh this was blantant copying

   Comment by EricPWJohnson (a253e0) — 2/27/2010 @ 7:32 pm

3. I still think that Avatar shares more with Dune than with Pocahontas — “worm riding” and all.

   Comment by Christian (f10530) — 2/27/2010 @ 7:48 pm

4. Dances with Wolves, totally.

   Comment by Patricia (e1047e) — 2/27/2010 @ 10:36 pm

5. There are no new ideas, sure.

   But filing off serial numbers and not giving credit where it is due is not very ethical for a “King of the World.”

   http://io9.com/5390226/did-james-cameron-rip-off-poul-andersons-novella

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_Me_Joe

   Mr. Anderson’s widow is still alive. She could use a few of those giant bucks that Mr. Cameron made. Don’t you think?

   Comment by Eric Blair (03ba54) — 2/27/2010 @ 11:15 pm

6. …Cameron, expressionless for about half a minute, finally looked up from the monitor and looked blankly into my eyes. Then, his mouth started slowly turning up into a grin, followed by a boisterous guffaw that filled the room. He then leaned forward toward the edge of his desk and opened a maple box, pulling out a fragrant Cuban cigar. Quickly clipping the tip, he reached into his shirt pocket for a gold-plated Zippo lighter, placing the embargoed export between his teeth.

   “Sho,” he said with a smug smile, “Looksh like you know my shecret.”

   He flipped his thumb over the wheel of the Zippo and a short flame rose, but he didn’t lower his stogie to meet it — he instead used his free hand to reach into his shirt pocket once again, removing a shiny silver money clip. With one jerking motion, he removed an unfolded $100 bill from the clip, which fell to the desk. He held a corner of the Benjamin to the Zippo and finally lit the tip of his cigar.

   “This little theatrical display I’m creating for you is meant to do two things”, he told me: “Number one: Show you how much I care — or, to be precise, how much I don’t care — and number two — ”

   It was at this point Cameron shook his hundred so that it stopped burning. Tiny wafts of smoke curled toward the ceiling. Then he concluded his remark: “Number two: You can give the people who do care about it this,” meaning the partially burnt $100.00 bill. “It’s OK, I’m done with it. Then you might want to ask them if they really want to Jimmy Jack around with the King of The World.”

   Comment by L.N. Smithee (546de6) — 2/28/2010 @ 1:25 am

7. [...] UPDATE: This is parody is very clever….I thought the plot of Avatar seemed awfully familiar. Via DRJ at Patterico, who lists the full provenance here. [...]

   Pingback by Amused Cynic » Blog Archive » So, I went and saw “Avatar” last night….[Updated] (c12030) — 2/28/2010 @ 5:55 am

8. You can see Cameron’s “original” mark-up on the story concept work HERE.

   Comment by Tully (4dce1a) — 2/28/2010 @ 12:37 pm

9. One commenter compared “Alien” to “Star Ship Troopers” but I think a better comparison would be A.E.van Vogt’s “Voyage of the Space Beagle”. An exploration ship finds an almost indestructible, scaled, and tentacled creature, possibly the last of an ancient race, marooned in interstellar space. They try to capture it but it gets loose and as they try to confine and capture or drive it out it begins to reproduce by planting it’s eggs in human hosts like a wasp. They set the ship to be washed by deadly energy and take to the lifeboats. The creature senses their absence, surmises the danger, and ejects itself from the ship. The crew reboards the ship and continue on, leaving the creature once again marooned.

   Sound familiar?

   Comment by Machinist (9780ec) — 3/1/2010 @ 11:05 am

10. Machinist, my understanding is that the producers and parent company of “Alien” had to pay the van Vogt family money over this issue. Which was good, since he was in very poor health at the time.

    Comment by Eric Blair (c8876d) — 3/1/2010 @ 11:50 am

11. I had no idea. Thank you Sir.

    Comment by Machinist (9780ec) — 3/1/2010 @ 12:31 pm

12. Machinist. In particular they get trick the creature into leaving the ship and ending up lost in space — very much like the alien in “Alien.”

    Comment by Christian (3290f5) — 3/1/2010 @ 12:33 pm

13. “Alien” is the “Black Destroyer” story in “Voyage of the Space Beagle.” “Aliens” is “Starship Troopers.”

    “Avatar” is a combination of Call Me Joe by Poul Anderson, Conehead by Gardner Fox, and Dune.

    Comment by Christian (3290f5) — 3/1/2010 @ 12:35 pm

14. I loved the movie and rank it as one of the best Sc-fi movies but I do remember the familiar feeling I got. I do not consider his Sc-fi hard core but they were good stories and I read some of them many times when I was younger. Some of the images are “seared” into my memory.

    Comment by Machinist (9780ec) — 3/1/2010 @ 12:37 pm

15. Christian ,
    Perhaps I missed the “s”. That would make more sense. None of the sequels came close to the original movie. It was very well played.

    Comment by Machinist (9780ec) — 3/1/2010 @ 12:50 pm

16. I always felt that “Forbidden Planet” owed much to the first story in Space Beagle, even the name of the alien race.

    Comment by Machinist (9780ec) — 3/1/2010 @ 12:52 pm

17. I agree regarding “Forbidden — The Tempest — Planet” and Space Beagle. One would also be remiss if one didn’t mention Star Trek and Space Beagle.

    Comment by Christian (3290f5) — 3/1/2010 @ 1:02 pm

18. Probably true but I was not a Trek fan. I like Sc-fi and Trek was fantasy. All of the versions were.

    Comment by Machinist (9780ec) — 3/1/2010 @ 1:10 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.