Okay I'll start by saying this is meant in jest and in no way am I accusing anyone. lol.

So a few years ago I got an idea about a film or series about a clown who tried to entertain the kids but actually really bad at it.  He was foul mouthed and crude and he was secretly fighting a war against other clowns.  These clowns were all at war and now had some serious injuries and disfigurements, and I toyed with idea of some of them being undead.  the main guy was called 'Stitches' and the film was to be called 'Clowning Around'.

Right so today I opened the latest issue of Empire magazine and there's a review about a  film called 'Stitches' about a clown who dies at a party and comes back for revenge.  So it's not exactly the same but it is similar.  I just found it strange and wondered if anyone else had any similar experiences?

That is pretty close, Alfy. Hope you never posted about that idea.

No I never went that far.  I did plan out 6 characters with distinctive looks and stupid/crazy clown routines and even weapons.  I had an outline for either the start of the movie or 1st episode if I decided to do a series.  I thought it kind of weird that it was pretty close to my idea...funny really.

A least it shows you have the right ideas!

Some of mine won't see the light of day...anywhere

Dude, lol! That was a great idea, too bad you didn't pull the trigger.

I'll be honest, a big reason I started writing scripts - I always had ideas and thoughts, but I started seeing my ideas on film and TV. It felt like someone had sucked my brain.

If you did write 'Stitches' and make it public, I would bet you'd be really fucking pissed right about now - and it was 100% legit! Hahaha

Yeah I'm pretty glad I didn't spend an age writing it and then spot this movie.  

I do seem to have ideas all the time but never get round to doing anything with them.  Perhaps I should just come up with an idea and pass it on to someone with the time a skill to write it....? lol

Heh that's a drag. Ever see Shakes the Clown, Alffy? Bobcat Goldthwait's first (I think) movie?

"Loserville" is now a stageplay in the West end... Although not the same as mine, that would have been a great lawsuit

Mark

Quoted from alffy I just found it strange and wondered if anyone else had any similar experiences?

A couple years ago, I came up with an idea about a futuristic America getting attacked by a band of countries and survivors trying to escape the annihilation.  I ran the idea by Brett and he mentioned the movie 'Red Dawn' to me.  I had never seen the movie, the original or the new, (I still haven't), but seeing the trailer for the new 'Red Dawn', it's almost the same exact way I pictured some of the scenes.

I have a totally original premise (at least I think I haven't seen before) that I'm scurrying now to get written and copyrighted before somebody else stumbles on the idea.  I'm thinking of posting the first ten pages here in the 'work in progress' section to see if the story's working or not and see how original an idea it actually is.

I have a mate who is a film genius. There aren't a lot of films that he hasn't seen. So, whenever I get a new idea I usually run it past him to see if there are already similar films out there... There usually are heh

That's too bad, Alffy.

You should have gone full hog with your idea.

I do like the title you had for it, though. Maybe you could just change some of the components from your original idea because a comedy movie about a clown war sounds funny.

Quoted from Marky Mark "Loserville" is now a stageplay in the West end... Although not the same as mine, that would have been a great lawsuit Mark

They should have gone for your story, mate. Then maybe they wouldn't be closing down for failing to attract audiences.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2012/nov/14/loserville-closing-critics-blame

Quoted from CoopBazinga I do like the title you had for it, though. Maybe you could just change some of the components from your original idea because a comedy movie about a clown war sounds funny.

The more I have been thinking about it the more I wonder why I didn't write it?  I just dug out my note pad and I had all the characters down with brief back story for each and some funny scenes.  My main problem was a story that would last 90 mins, which is why I toyed with a series, making each episode about a different clown and how they became embroiled in the war and got their name.  Each name derived from injuries sustained i.e. Stitches was attacked a knife or potato peeler and had actual stitches under the painted ones..

Well, Alffy, that sucks big time, and I think you better forget about it. I know it's a sore subject for you but you can't do anything about it and it will just bring you negative thoughts.

The idea of this happening to me makes me negative and thing like this never even happened to me.

I had an idea for a tv series about a woman called sam, working for a private intelligence agency, character driven, backstory's about family histories... lots of action and espionage and double-crosses...

then Hunted hit the UK screens. I was a little suspicious, to be fair, as I'd shared the idea with someone who turned out to be less than honest... but hey. Stuff happens.

Best one though was an idea for a spoof kung-fu quest movie, with 3 chinese monks of the discipline snu-ka coming to the uk to get a new cue-tip for their monastary from a specialist UK supplier and then having to get it blessed by ray riordan (an old snooker legend)... had an idea for the old "crane style fist of iron punch" stuff to be transposed into "stun run through with a trace of side"

...involving 'battles' against pool hustlers, a challenge match against the UK based chinese players, and culminating in the hero (Lui Pi) needing to win a tournament to get Ray to speak to him... The title being Snu-ka Lui Pi.

And wouldn't you know but reading a book on the Kung-Fu genre I came across a paragraph about a Hong Kong film from the 1970s with an eerily similar plot using snooker as a style of kung-fu and with cameos from famous (at the time) british players. Time travelling story theft!

Quoted from oJOHNNYoNUTSo Dude, lol! That was a great idea, too bad you didn't pull the trigger. I'll be honest, a big reason I started writing scripts - I always had ideas and thoughts, but I started seeing my ideas on film and TV. It felt like someone had sucked my brain. If you did write 'Stitches' and make it public, I would bet you'd be really fucking pissed right about now - and it was 100% legit! Hahaha

Yeah - this is a lot of why I got into it too! (Maybe there's a film in there - about some shadowy production company going around sucking ideas from people's brains then producing them as films?)