There can be only one: the strange phenomena of ‘Twin Films’
There’s an old saying that posits there are only a handful of stories to have ever been told across all mediums, but the key is to put enough of a unique spin on the tale that it stands out. Cinema has often faced accusations of being too repetitive for its own good, which is neatly encapsulated by the ‘twin films’ phenomena.
In the majority of cases, it’s largely based on coincidence, but on certain occasions, suspicions have been raised. After all, two virtually identical screenplays snaking their way through development, shooting, post-production, and release almost simultaneously is enough to generate a quizzical glance. Such viewpoints usually end up leading to accusations of someone copying somebody else’s homework.
Twin films didn’t used to come around all that often. Still, in an age where blockbusters are sold and marketed more on the back of high concepts and easily digestible loglines than everything else, the industry for aspiring screenwriters has evolved into something perilously close to a hive mind if the number of spiritual siblings rising exponentially in the last 25 years is any indication.
As mentioned, it’s hardly a new phenomenon, with two rival adaptations of Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe being released within very close proximity to each other back in 1913. However, twin films arguably didn’t start gathering serious momentum and notoriety into the 1990s, and it’s hardly a coincidence so many of them served as the backdrop to expensive stories that – on paper at least – carried plenty of earning potential.
Ridley Scott’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise bested John Glen’s Christopher Columbus: The Discovery in 1992, but nobody really won when they were both declared dead on arrival and torn to shreds by critics. Two years later the phenomena gave rise to films with eight-word titles following drag queens on a journey of self-discovery in a highly specific twist, but at least The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar are both established cult favourites.
Showgirls and Striptease were equally detrimental to all involved. Michael Bay obliterated Hollywood’s other asteroid flick when Armageddon destroyed Deep Impact at the box office, and Tommy Lee Jones’ Volcano tried to outstrip Pierce Brosnan’s Dante’s Peak in reducing small rural towns to smouldering ash in the wake of a volcanic eruption. Antz and A Bug’s Life even took the trend to animation.
The Haunting vs The House on Haunted Hill, Mission to Mars vs Red Planet, Capote vs Infamous, Mirror Mirror vs Snow White and the Huntsman, This is the End vs The World’s End, Hercules vs The Legend of Hercules, Churchill vs Darkest Hour, and Olympus Has Fallen vs White House Down are just some of the more prominent examples to have arrived in the same year. All of it offers an indication of the genre breadth twin films can have.
Interior-set horrors, ventures to the furthest reaches of space, Truman Capote, repurposed fairy tales, apocalyptic ensemble comedies, sword-and-sandal epics, one of history’s greatest leaders, and Die Hard clones unfolding at the hub of the United States government have all inadvertently taken part. The rules of cinema demand that only one will be declared victorious, and more often than not, the winner is decided purely by how much cold, hard cash it earns from theatres.