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Forums - Movies & TV - Elysium and Elyzium, or how similar the story I am writing from that Matt Damon movie

as mentioned in this thread.

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=187872&page=1#

I started writing a story called "ELYZIUM" about 5 years before the movie Elysium was announced. its not exactly similar but never the less I changed the title to "The Elyzian Fields"

Having watched the movie recently, I can see people calling my story a "Rip off" if I ever finish it, even though its a lot different I feel like the similarites would attract unneeded attention. This is the full backstory but if you're not in the mood to read much i'll highlight the aspects that I think are very similar below.

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=6559413

 



Oh well here it goes. I'll tell you a short version, and long version. 

 

Short version 

Elyzium is a colony. Home for those who do not have homes, Home for the outlaws.  its also home for independant organizations, organizations that do not follow any political border. they're only driven by personal gain. Elyzium is a Technocratic colony. 

Long version

In the past (the future's past) during the end of the current Ice Age. a group of rich scientists and philosophers,  formed an organization called Scientists Beyond The Boundaries. (kind of like the freemasons)  because of the rise of poverty, the flooding of many cities and wars between religions and ethnic groups, this organization tried to become an independant entity. free from "the shackles of morality" and "boundaries of national ideologies " (hence the name) 

they called it CS1 (Codenamed Fortuna). It was the very first inhabitable colony that was completely seperate from earth. And It was a massive success to the organization and humanity as a whole, That they were called the "first Colonists" years later. advancement in space colonization have became almost entirely exclusive to the colonists, while the nations of the earth were struggling to make ends meet. the colonists pretty much lived like gods in heaven. to the point that their technological advancement surpassed anything that is on earth. their lifespans tripled because of their research in medical science. (they're called Forever People by those who were on earth).

On earth, humanity entered a new age that was later called "Age Of Shadows" by the colonists. The sun was bloated by machines and space junks. food became scarse as the earth no longer good for harvest (because of black rain clouds, and later because of predators), i

On the other side of the spectrum the first Colonists built another Colonial station CS2 (Codenamed Mnemosyne) it served as a gateway for people on earth to join the colonists and "Advance Humanity to the next level (Transhumanism) ". They were very aggressive and preachy at this point. they wanted people to abandon their beloved earth and their kingdoms. they warned them before about the coming years,

 

 

 

Do you guys think I'm ripping off the movie? 



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The Z in the title makes all the difference



I don't know if you're ripping it off, but it is awfully similar.

My advice: Don't just change the name of the story, change the name of the colony, too. You said it was codenamed "Fortuna", just make it the name of the colony and name the story "Fields of Fortuna" instead.

Also, you'll have to make the story and characters very different than in the movie so you can get away with the similarity of the worlds.

I know your plight. I also placed a lot of effort into a story and they made a very similar movie



Call it ''Fortuna''.

Problems solved.



I'm sure there are many aspiring writers out there that have been pipped by another or Hollywood. While they have the budget, these writers do not and so it takes long to put together their story.

Many works of fiction are closely tied though, the concepts shown in the film have been done in other forms before. I mean look at the idea set about in Watchmen, considered the greatest comic ever, which was that an outside threat would unite the people of earth. The Outer Limit episode 'http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Architects_of_Fear' had the same concept if not a different way of telling it and ending. Yet even that concept was done before (see the wiki page).

The concept of a human society that thinks itself above other humans as they live in luxury while other suffer is nothing new, the close ties you have between the two stories are just the concept that this human society exists in a space station above earth. Elysium was the rich and powerful, your setup is those who consider themselves more intelligent than the masses.

How the actual story draws out is what matters, concepts do not.

Else seriously, comics have ripped off every story ever writen 15 times over.



Hmm, pie.

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Psychotic said:

I don't know if you're ripping it off, but it is awfully similar.

My advice: Don't just change the name of the story, change the name of the colony, too. You said it was codenamed "Fortuna", just make it the name of the colony and name the story "Fields of Fortuna" instead.

Also, you'll have to make the story and characters very different than in the movie so you can get away with the similarity of the worlds.

I know your plight. I also placed a lot of effort into a story and they made a very similar movie

Oh no. in the begininng there is Fortuna (Fortune), Mnemosyne (Memory) and  Joy (which is later called Elyzium when it is taken over by outlaws hunderd of years later)

Those three are all colonies which were built by the first colonists (the forever people) 

Fortuna is just the first.

 

The story however takes place hundred of years after Elyzium was built when all of humanity already left the earth. Elyzian Fields is a mercenary group, headquartered inside Elyzium, that  is hired by colonies (which now, over 20+ of them exist )  to keep the peace in times of chaos. (think of it like they're a hired space police) 

 

In comparision the movie sounds like the prequel which i find funny. 

 

Another similarity is that in the movie they seem to be using swords ? though there is no reason to use them in the movie , I guess they just thought they were cool, however in the story I am writing, they use magnet nullifying swords are used to penetrate force fields (Magnetic vs anti magnetic) that troops and vehicles are equiped with. because normal bullets would simply deflect off the force field due to their light weight (no laser bullets here, those are silly)



I sure hope it is different, because Elysium's story didn't make much sense.



“It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it.”

- George Orwell, ‘1984’

foodfather said:
Call it ''Fortuna''.

Problems solved.


it sounds lame though =( 



Lol, its extremely similar to Elysium. You sure someone didn't rip you off? And call it Fortuna, that's a good name.



Porcupine_I said:
I sure hope it is different, because Elysium's story didn't make much sense.


Yeah, I don't like to brag but I thought a lot of things about that story that made me go "Why?"

 

Why didn't anyone on earth just take the idea of this illness healing machine and build their own version of it? it doesn't have to be fancy or anything just a DYI version. in other scifi stories for example, they explain it like "ancient technology" or something that normal people do not understand. 

Why does Elysium not apply a force field on top of their colony to prevent immigrants from sneaking in ?  in one scene one of the characters used a force field to deflect bullets so the technology is there. 

Why exactly are rich people so evil? its like they want earthlings to revolt against them.

 

thats some of the things I remember.