Thanks to Ben for the tip.
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Clonus Cloned AgainWalter Fiveson, call your office.
27 Replies to “Clonus Cloned Again”Commenting at Satellite News
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I think Fiveson may end up making more money from rip-offs of “Clonus” than from the original movie itself. And I’m surprised that, after the “Island” debacle, nobody at the studio thought to do research on similarly-themed projects.
A thought just occurred to me: the first “Clonus” rip-off starred Ewan McGregor, and the second will star Keira Knightley. Any bets that the third one will star Hayden Christiansen?
Having read “Never Let Me Go,” the story has very little in common with Clonus. The ‘clones’ in the story have a pretty clear sense what their purposes is, and actually go into a hospice type program when its time for them to be ‘harvested.’
I’d have to say the similarities between the novel and Clonus aren’t significant–basically, both are based on the same scientific idea and theory, but they couldn’t be more different in execution.
I’d like to see Mr. Fiveson, being the good sport he is, get that $$$. However, isn’t the “clone harvesting” plot like any other stock movie theme that don’t really belong to anyone; done over and over again, just in different contexts (Mad scientist wants to rule the world, giant killer animal/insect, cops vs. mafia, etc.). If it’s a verbatim copy like “The Island”, then “SURE!”….take ’em to court. But if it’s just routine fare, it may not be worth it.
This was also on SciFi Wire (scifi.com), and they mentioned “The Island”. I posted a comment that it was also like Parts:The Clonus Horror (with appropriate mention of MST3K)
J/P=?
I think it all depends where the story goes from the starting point. I have not read the story as #3 has, but if the organ-harvesting is really just the set-up, it could definitely be far different (and maybe a whole lot better)than Clonus. Most every modern zombie flick owes a great deal to George Romero and Co for giving the genre it’s start, too. Maybe we’ll see a whole new genre emerge where we’ll see a new wave of film making,at least six new organ-harvest clone movies in theaters every year! Ooh, count me in!
“(Mad scientist wants to rule the world, giant killer animal/insect, cops vs. mafia, etc.).”
Nah, this is more like a specific means by which a mad scientist wants to take over the world. Imagine a whole series of otherwise unrelated movies where the villian *always* uses a rare spore from a meteorite, or something, each time with a slight variation.
The broader concept that cloning-for-organs falls into, as the spore-scientist thing falls into mad science overall, would be that of using human subjects like animals or natural resources – for medical testing/products, sinister absolute-loyalty mind-control/cloning programs, or even just raw materials (Soylent Green, for example). *That’s* the sub-genre, not organ harvesting all by itself. That’s a sub-sub-genre and does not in any way deserve so many repeated treatments.
If this were about an organization or religious sect devoted to *voluntarily* ending their (already suicidal?) lives and thereby providing organs, that could be original, philosophically challenging, and thought-provoking. This will most likely be yet more big-budgety fluff.
having read the novel, again, this will not be big budgety. It’s a quiet novel about meaning and memory that focuses on the characters’ capacity to fall in love, despite their treatment as spare parts. Not really any potential for much in the way of action. The author is the Kazuo Ishiguro. To put this in perspective, he wrote “Remains of the Day”.
It sounds rather similar, but it is based on a book at least, so they have that to fall back on in any copyright dispute. Fiveson would have to sue the author. But you know Clonus wasn’t all that original either. When I was growing up one of my favorite books in my grade school’s library was a novel aimed at younger readers called Clone Hunter, or at least that is what I remember it being called. I’ve just done a brief google search for it and all I can find is a lame sounding novel from 2003 with that name. The book from my childhood featured a man who was hired to track down a rich man’s estranged son, and eventually uncovered the truth that the person he was looking for was actually a clone of the man who was created in order to harvest his organs, and he had escaped. Even though this seems a bit like both Clonus and Blade Runner this was in the early 80’s that I read it, and I believe it was an older book that was probably written in the early to mid 70’s, before both Clonus and Blade Runner were made (though not before BR’s source novel).
I can’t say where the fine line between ‘same general concept’ and ‘same specific idea’ is. All I know is when I first saw the trailer for ‘The Island’, I didn’t think, “Oh, another movie centering around the ethical issues of cloning”, but rather, “Well blow me down! A big-budget (and, I assumed at the time, legitimate) remake of ‘parts: the clonus horror’! That’d look great next to my copy of the ‘She Creature’ remake.” Granted, I have yet to see ‘The Island’, and I probably haven’t seen or read quite as much science fiction as most MSTies (my fixation is more on bizarre/indescribable cult films), but I don’t think most stories about clones focus quite that much on the possibilities of organ harvesting. Do they?
Maybe this will be a completely different take, but the first half of ‘Clonus’ also focused on the ability of two controls to fall in love and thus alter their destiny, so maybe not.
Just trust me…the novel is light years away from Clonus. The Love thing is only a bit of the book, but it is basically an exploration of the Clone’s humanity, and there isn’t really anything to do with ‘secrets’ or ‘conspiracies’ or any of that junk–it’s a story about people who are cloned and raised for parts, but the focus is much more on the fact that they grew up, have memories, and even though they’ve been primed and trained for their roles as organ donors, some of them are curious about the way regular humans live.
Yes, the premise is sort of, kind of similar, but the focus is completely different. It would be like comparing “Gravity’s Rainbow” to “Rocket Attack USA.” They both explore the Rocket-Nation and the Cold War, but at the end of the day, they don’t have very much in common at all.
Nah, read the book, or at least reviews of it (that’s all I’ve done :oops: ). It’s nothing like Clonus.
Hmmm….Perhaps the makers of The Atomic Brain should sue Ishiguro et al for The Remains of the Day!!? :razz:
Oh, I’m sorry..I meant the one with the butler…The Unearthly!
TIME TO GO TO COURT
Mark Romanek should make this film visually interesting, at the very least.
Seen it !!!!!!!!!!
JRB is correct. This book was written by Kazuo Ishiguro (Remains of the Day) and has no action sequences in it whatsoever. The only thing it has in common with Clonus is the premise of organ harvesting, and this idea can hardly belong to one writer. That’s like saying no one can write about space exploration because of Gene Roddenberry.
The fact that it is based on a book by an author is no guarantee of a faithful adaptation of the actual novel. And the movie industry has a general tendency to . . . well . . . dumb stuff down. A lot.
I could cite any number of examples. I’m sure most of you could as well.
I’ll remain cynical for the time being.
Point well taken Raptorial Talon. If the film represents the novel well, then this won’t resemble Clonus…
You are right though. The film industry sometimes finds ways of making nothing out of something.
That being said, if this film is reasonably faithful to the book, and well crafted in its own right, this could be a very cool, and lovely sci-fi film.
I thought there was potential for cloning individual organs, so there would be no need for the Clonus-type set up.
There is, Travis. Most of the medical research right now is geared towards growing specific organs for transplant–and blood, which is always in high demand and short supply.
A thought occurs, Travis . . .
Maybe its one of the options in the sales pitch.
“Yes, you can have a brand new, off the rack, model. Or, if your budget permits, you can have one of our “lived in” models. Guaranteed to work as it has been road tested for years.
Or, if your budget is a little tighter, you could take your chances with the Vend-a-gut machine over there by the coffee maker.”
In Hollywood, people have sued for less and gotten big paydays.
Clonus 4 EVAR!
It’s the exact plot of Clonus. Ugh. When will Hollywood learn that clone movies are bound to fail because the whole central theme is just stupid. Clones raised for organ donation? Where? In seclusion. Fine, but how do you keep them from THINKING? Simple. Lobotomize them. But if you do that, you have no movie. So the one smart way to keep the clones from escaping is the one thing you cannot do. Ergo, all these movies end up sucking. The end.
Randy
RA Roth 23. You COULD have a movie with lobotomized clones, but the clones couldn’t be heroes. You’d need one of the clone-keepers to realize the evil that s/he was participating in and revolt ! But yeah, lobotomized clone hero ? not a good protagonaist.
“It’s the exact plot of Clonus. Ugh. When will Hollywood learn that clone movies are bound to fail because the whole central theme is just stupid. Clones raised for organ donation? Where? In seclusion. Fine, but how do you keep them from THINKING? Simple. Lobotomize them. But if you do that, you have no movie. So the one smart way to keep the clones from escaping is the one thing you cannot do. Ergo, all these movies end up sucking. The end.”
*applauds*
It sounds like a lobotomized clone movie would/could end up basically a zombie movie. And since only the rich and powerful would have the clones to begin with, it could make for some pretty sweet cameos. Rush Limbaugh as a slobbering, thoughtless, lumbering…um, well. I’ll just leave that one alone…
The Bolem says:
“That’d look great next to my copy of the ‘She Creature’ remake.”
It interested me to research the She Creature remake since I had never heard of it. In doing so I found that not only is it pretty much a remake in name only but also titled “Mermaid Chronicles Part 1: She Creature”. Which is very odd because I couldn’t find anything on a Mermaid Chronicles 2! :neutral:
I also found there was an odd Larry Clark directed Teenage Caveman remake done around the same time. The tagline being “The Future Sucks”. :(
I guess somebody had the bright idea of doing a whole slew of made-for-TV remakes of a bunch of Sam Arkoff AIP films.