Today's Evil Beet Gossip

Inception Might Not Be As Deep As You Think

Everyone I know is blowing their load over Inception (except my BFF Edward, who thought it sucked ass) and lately a rumor has been going around that it may not exactly be the deepest/most interesting/most original in the history of film after all. People are saying that Christopher Nolan stole the idea for the movie from an old Scrooge MacDuck comic, and while “steal” isn’t the word I would use, The Answer Bitch had a pretty good explaination:

Still, there are quite a few similarities between the comic—entitled Uncle Scrooge in The Dream of a Lifetime—and the Leonardo DiCaprio flick. I dug around to see where writer-director Christopher Nolan got his idea. I also ran your query past some intellectual property experts to determine if we’re going to see any sort of duck-on-DiCaprio lawsuit in the near future:

And the answer to that latter question is, probably not.

There are simply too many differences in each story. Yes, both stories deal with dream invasion. Both have some form of thought manipulation. But beyond that, the stories start to diverge.

For one, “Dream manipulation has been around at least since Shakespeare’s fairies did it in A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” points out attorney Joseph R. Englander of Shutts & Bowen LLP. “The concepts of the comic and the movie may be similar, but that alone is not enough to claim infringement.”

Right. And there are other points of difference. There are ducks in the comic, not people.

And the motives in the two stories are totally different.

The goal in the Scrooge comic is simple theft; someone wants to steal Scrooge’s money. The impetus in Inception is some sort of something-something about two energy companies, and the head of one wants to break up the other, and everybody decides that the best way to do that is not through a hostile stock takeover but rather via Cillian Murphy‘s brain.

However, for the sake of argument, let’s just say that Nolan did happen to see that Scrooge comic. Let’s just say that one floppy little booklet gave him the idea to pen a tale about a bunch of pretty people who jack into dreams through their wrists—you know, where the dreams live?—and plunder all the thoughts therein.

Even so, it still doesn’t really count as a real ripoff, I am told.

So what do you think? And do you even care?

13 CommentsLeave a comment

    • ( http://www.lockfashion.com )
      Online Store,Get Name Brand Fashion From 12USD Now!
      Lv,Gucci,Prada,Coach,Chanel Women sandal is $30
      DG,JUICY,Lv,Gucci,Coach Hand-bag price is $35
      Polo,Locaste,Levis,EdHardy,Bape,Christan Audigier AF,COOGI Tshirt price is $12
      Jeans price is $30
      Paypal accept,Door to Door services!
      5 days arrive your home or your friends’ adress by EMS,DHL,UPs
      click my link under here!

      how he thought of it. Inspiration comes from somewhere, and a lot of the appeal from that movie comes from the execution of the storyline and not just the story itself. If that makes any sense.
      Reply

  • I don’t care how he thought of it. Inspiration comes from somewhere, and a lot of the appeal from that movie comes from the execution of the storyline and not just the story itself. If that makes any sense.

  • I think probably Scrooge McDuck performed an inception on Chris Nolan’s brain. That’s my current working theory.

  • I don’t care, inspiration comes from everywhere and I guess it’s pretty cool to be inspired by a comic. Anyhow, I haven’t watched the movie but totally believe the reviews that it sucked ass (from actual reviews and sane friends). Sounds like just another overhyped movie with an interesting premise and lots of cgi but no meat to it (like avatar, which I did watch). Btw, Dark Knight wasn’t that amazing either and Heath’s family got a pity oscar–but you knew that the sec he got nominated. Should’ve won for brokeback

    • good point. love it when people don’t see the movie and leave reviews of it anyway. hey, did you like the green lantern? what about titanic 2? Yeah, you’re right. It sucks.

      Also as an fyi, lots of the special effects aren’t cgi. like, they actually built those sets and joseph g lev-ee ran his hot little ass around as the actual sets actually rotated in actuality. and they built a fake paris and actually actually exploded it. that’s pretty fucking cool. actually.

      and i tried to watch paprika the other day and just…if anyone can walk away from that movie and steal something, they were paying such close attention that they deserve to own the rights. that shit was 10x more confusing than inception, which is saying something. I appreciate that scrooge kept it simple.

  • i liked the movie but i didnt think it was so cool, i thought it was something i’d kind of already seen somewere else but couldnt figure it out. but still it was entretaining… nothing new or super deep, just another movie

  • I loved Inception even if as I watched it my boyfriend was huffing about how he had the same idea. It’s ironic too, a movie about stealing ideas might have come from a stolen idea!

  • It was visually cool, but definitely over-hyped! It didn’t feel as deep as it was trying to be.