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.

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.

I've not read the watchmen , but I think my favorite comic series is either Sandman or Y : Last Man , Saga might be going to be added to favorites, have you read that one?

Read only bits of Sandman, I read a lot of Y back in the day. Not heard of Saga but looking at the writer, I will pick it up in TPB form.

I read mainly Marvel (X-men) and because that is mostly gibberish at the moment, I only get basic few books each month. If Marvel got writers like Brian K Vaughan back on staff then maybe just maybe, they could get back the good writing they've lost. The only book I'm enjoying is Brian Wood's X-men, Bendis cannot write X-men (his stories ignore the basic principles of time travel to make them work and it's crap) and Avengers by Hickman is a joke, Earth's mightiest heroes reduced to 'We need to get bigger' bullcrap and flying through space, it's no better than bad fan fiction.