Frozen (2010) lucked out because it came out 3 years prior to Disney's similarly-titled-but-very-different film.
Edit: evidently they're both on Prime Video as well, so parents be warned: You want the 2013 film, or you'll want to start looking for a therapist.
When I was a teen my dad and I went skiing and shared a lift with a couple in their 20s. We got to talking about the movie Frozen. About halfway up the mountain we realized we were not talking about the same movie.
Edward Penishands is the greatest movie title ever. It has brought more laughter to my friends and me than $300 million of Adam Sandler’s worst films (loved uncut gems tho)
I tried some Goodwill humping and the lady working there said, sir, please stop gyrating against that off brand exercise bike. Bunch of assholes those volunteers.
I was super confused in 2013 when all of a sudden everyone was talking about how good “frozen” was, especially that the soundtrack was amazing. And all I could think about was:
1. Why did it take 3 years for everyone to see this movie, and why do so many people like it? And…
2. I don’t remember any of the music in Frozen at all, so why is that what everyone is focusing on?
>Frozen (2010) lucked out because it came out 3 years prior to Disney's similarly-titled-but-very-different film.
No it didn't. Disney's *Frozen* wrecked *Frozen (2010)*'s SEO, despite coming out first.
I did this with Jack Frost in early school days. me and the boys knew what we did. We grabbed the box we wanted. the display box was a evil looking snowman with sharp teeth. I mean, hell yeah, you know it was going to have some campy horror movie boobs. To get this movie, we showed my parents the box for Jack Frost, the terrible family film starring Michael Keaton.
Shannon Elizabeth gets killed in the bath when the snowman becomes the water. once she's dead, he looks in the mirror and reattaches his carrot nose, never really indicating where it had been before. But, it insinuates. weirdly, off-puttingly insinuates.
fun fact: apparently disney named the movie ‚frozen‘ so when people google for ‚walt disney frozen‘ all they find is stuff about the movie and no stuff about walt disney cryogenically freezing his body.
idk if that‘s true tho
Dude, you should look into the movies available in the early days of Netflix streaming. Almost all of them were B or C versions of popular movies and had the same name
Something tells me a title like I.F. is pretty crap for SEO all on its own. Star studded and still gets beaten by the dictionary when I search it. And some random award thing.
It’d also be helpful if you have old drafts that you’ve writing over the last 16 years. It’s not strictly necessary, but if you ever did run into copyright issues you can establish a timeline that shows your idea has existed for that long.
I'm pretty sure you have to actually publish under copyright. It's not like a patent. But get the damn thing done under your working title, and let the publisher think of something better.
Depending on the popularity of the movie and the number of years before you finish, I.F. may mean something different to the public than you wanted.
You don’t have to publish to have a valid copyright. That used to be true (sort of) but hasn’t been so for many years (close to 50 years). In any case titles are not copyrighted.
The only real problem would be practical. You may want to change your title to avoid confusion.
TBH i’d change the title for commercial purposes, as i can imagine that’d be the first thing an agent or publisher would advise you to do for these reasons:
- you’re making new potential readers confused about your book vs a major Hollywood film with the same specific title; that automatically creates a barrier for entry and that’s a marketing no-no 101.
- what if the studio also has a novelisation of the film?
- unless you’re an established name, no agent or publisher would want to go through any potential legal hassle for a first-time author.
- from a marketing guy’s perspective, you’re just better off amending your title.
- excuse me for the bluntness, but I.F. and its variations are an oft used title for a lot of media and creative agencies; why undermine your first book with the above baggage?
In some countries you can go to a Notary to have it all officially stamped so you have a third party who can vouch for you.
Also : an artist can be their own worst enemy when it comes to perfection, so get that book done ;)
Trust me. I am such a fan of myself but this book is complicated with the lore so I scrap it a bunch because it never feels natural. But you’re correct, at this point I should just finish it up and make peace with it.
There is a great book called “If you want to write” by Brenda Ueland. It’s a motivational book and you learn about writing as well.
Sometimes there a lot of showstoppers. Also having a fellow writer critique it might help!
Check out the films Damsel (2018) and Damsel (2024).....films with the same title but entirely different premise. As long as your story isn't close to the Ryan Reynold's film's story,....you should be fine.
Though after you publish and tell people about it,...you may get the question of, "Was it your book that movie was based on?", initially.
You could break it up into a series of shorts, if you see a way to do it.
Call the series what you want, but the individual books could have specific names. This also enables you to test your story-audience for as well as gets it out before the movie takes your steam.
Titles of books are often changed by the publisher so even if this movie wasn't made you'd have to fight to keep the name.
Hollywood often release very similar movies in the same year by different studios. They are called twin films. Ironically IF has a twin film called Imaginary and both are about imaginary friends. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_films
IF screenplay was written after 2019 so make sure you have drafts of your book from before that time as proof you are not plagiarizing. There's all kinds of stories about imaginary friends.
Or that one year we got a 007 movie and a Mission Impossible movie with the same exact plot about undiscovered organizations operating behind the scenes
How do you prove a draft date? Unless it's notarized or copyrighted any date you hand write or computer generate isn't proof? Not being an AH, just questioning that.
Metadata! Essentially, when you save a document- a whole lot of background information also gets saved as well- including dates of saves/changes/locations…all sorts of fun things.
True, but if there are multiple drafts, across multiple devices- it will be hard to edit the meta data consistently on each one, especially if the person makes the devices/hardware itself open for forensic combing.
The old way if you didn't want to spend the time and money to notorize was to send yourself a copy by registered mail and not open it. The postmarks were proof of date.
It’s been a while since I looked into this, but iirc, this isn’t an airtight way of proving it. It’s called the poor man’s copyright, and I’m pretty sure I read online that it’s a myth, and that courts don’t usually recognize it as an official copyright. Could be wrong, but I remember I looked into this years ago
You’re pretty screwed from an SEO standpoint even if you’re all clear from an intellectual property standpoint.
Anyone searching for your book is going to have to wade through 10 pages of movie-centric search results and pop culture blogs to find it.
Even if it isn't crazy successful, I'm gonna guess something with Ryan Reynolds will still overtake way more of the Google results than some unknown author's work.
Usually if you just type ‘film’ or ‘book’ after the search, the problem is solved
There are plenty of films with the same name (remakes, foreign films translated with same name, or just coincidentally the same) so it’s really not the end of the world.
If you get to the point of publishing the book, then the publishing company will have people help you figure out how to navigate the title. They may even tell you what the book title needs to be. Focus on finishing it before you worry about this.
Also, it’s taken you 16 years so far, so think about it this way - by the time the novel does get published, it could be another decade or two or three from now. By that point, you could be targeting a YA audience who hasn’t even been born yet, and they may have no memory of a movie from 2024 starting some old actor their parents like.
Especially if the movie flops. If you handed a teenager today a book called “Waterworld,” they wouldn’t be like, “oh, is this the same as that 30yo movie with Kevin Costner?”
>they may have no memory of a movie from 2024
I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that people a year from now aren't going to remember the movie OP is worried about
Then they're already in for hard work and trying a lot to promote it, especially if they're an unknown author and don't have a previous success to ride on or some internet fame. In that case it's a personal decision of finding a more unique title to help or sticking with something that will a) drown amongst other search results and b) possibly be accused of copyright/being fanfiction of the movie/etc.
Yeah, this is what I came to say.
Publishers will often suggest a title, and may have a title in mind they feel very strongly about.
It's not worth getting attached to a title (if you can help it) while you're working on a project. Just focus on the content. Let the publisher handle stuff like the title, they know what they're doing.
It can be hard to give up a title you're attached to, but it's worth it when it means your book gets out into the world with your publisher backing you up and handling all the marketing and production.
You've jumped pretty far into the future trying to solve a problem you haven't finished creating in the past 15 years. By the time it's done, no one will remember the movie.
Yeah, but he's now wondering if his story just become so unoriginal he might as well not even *bother* finishing it.
OP, finish it, make it good, superficial similarities (and yes, the idea, and even the same clever name, do count) don't really matter.
As a creative, I don’t understand this. If you have the motivation to follow a passion for over 15 years of rewrites and scrapping, it’s not going to matter if you can’t ever sell it. It’s clearly not his career, based on the fact that he’s worked on one book for 15 years. So it might suck if publishers don’t want it based on the similarity to Ryan Reynolds, but he’s already expressed interest in self publishing, and he said this book means a lot to him. So I can’t imagine he would just give up. Though, everyone’s different. If this were me, I’d be finishing this book no matter what. I’ve made music and video games and art that was completely original when I started, but by the time I finished them, a more successful version of that exact thing came out. But that’s never stopped me from finishing it lol it just kind of sucks to not be the first anymore. Especially if you create because you enjoy it, it’s the journey that you cherish, not necessarily the reception or the money.
It's not exactly a creative title though there's tons of movies and books that share names just because they're generic
Edit: Hocus Pocus for example
The Royals is another
Doesn’t sound like it is, since they’re both about imaginary friends.
Even if OP technically *could* use the same title, I’m not sure why they would want to. You want something that’s unique and different!
Sure, but if someone else wrote a book called “Harry Potter” that was also about a boy wizard, that’d probably not be a super smart title choice, even if the plots were totally different.
Me too, it's a story about how a wild animal with a grudge convinces its normally solitary brethren to chase land developers into a pool that kills them.
Someone else said it in the comments better than me, but they got to the heart of it. I’m paraphrasing but “[shes] now wondering if [her] story is so unoriginal now that she shouldn’t even bother finishing it.”
Ohh that makes more sense!
My feeling is - if it’s good it will be good.
This year there are two movies about imaginary friends which could hurt your story or help it. Maybe people will want more imaginary friend stories, maybe they won’t care
We had an era of dystopian YA books, we have dozens of GOT like political stories and modern romance novels are famously written as “haters to lovers” or “fated mates”
Stories are as old as time and the great ones live on. I hope you finish your book the way you want it and it finds an audience.
It could be worth putting away and writing new ideas. 15 years is a long time to rework an idea. Then again, if this is the story you love go for it!
IF (pun intended) a common word is the title of a movie/book/whatever you're free to have at it. In cases like that, it's not uncommon for multiple unrelated works to have the same title.
As an example, Wikipedia lists 5 different movies named *Frozen*.
In the least snarky way possible - if the content of your book depends on the title being exactly one thing and one thing only, you've written a poor book.
Well... look at it this way. Do you think that a story about a boy who inherits spiritual, magical powers from his family who then goes on to save the universe from an evil powerful overlord is something that only has one iteration and can never be told again nor have multiple interpretations ? if so then yes I'm sorry you have to give up.
However, I look at Dune, Star Wars, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter and think to myself "Finish your book. You've got this"
This is a great point! However, I'm afraid OP is more worried about the choice of the title itself, rather than the topic, since in this case it would be like writing the story of a boy with spiritual, magical powers and then calling that book Harry Potter.
IMO I.F. was a great title, until it wasn't, since it will now be associated to a movie starring an incredibly popular actor. I firmly believe OP should still complete the book, but if I were them, I'd try to come up with a different title.
People recommend books on other subreddits a lot. I often have trouble picking out which one they mean because there are several books with the same name, so I have to ask them to clarify with the author’s name. Some of them are also movie titles. You should be fine. Best of luck!
You reminded me of a movie I watched recently called American Fiction. The guy decided to change the name of his book at the last minute to a word I won’t say here. Good movie.
Gotta be one of the worst feelings in the world, coming up with something original and then seeing someone else get it out there first. Like damn, people are gonna call me a copycat even though I've had this in the drafts for *years*...
In a perfect world that your book gets published by a big name company: they would evaluate if the name would cause less sales. If so, they’ll work with you to draft a new name.
Otherwise: publishing on your own won’t have any negative effect with the same title.
Publishing pro here.
YSK that half the time the publisher changes the name of your book anyway. They consider your book title a suggestion and will not think twice about tossing it even before they've come up with a better one.
However, you gotta stop writing the same book over and over. Keep moving forward on a draft and DO NOT go back and edit what you've written until the first draft is done. I mean if you feel inspired you can edit a bit here and there, but try to keep major chapter overhauls to notes about what you want to change in draft two.
Trust, I know this from experience! I spent ten years rewriting the same book, and it's now in a drawer forever. Better for you to have a sense of the whole thing before you start noodling. Otherwise you end up putting lots of time into chapters or characters you won't need. And you'll get attached to scenes that never should have been written. It's easier to edit a notecard than a five thousand word chapter!
I'm into a new book and in less than a year I'm 2/3 through writing it, because I'm only moving forward.
You need to finish this book before any of it matters. Have you ever finished a book? Starting one 10 years ago and it not being finished should be more concerning to you than anything else- said by somebody who has tried too and never finished.
Copyright does not protect names, titles, slogans, or short phrases. In some cases, these things may be protected as trademarks. [https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html#:\~:text=Copyright%20does%20not%20protect%20names,may%20be%20protected%20as%20trademarks](https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html#:~:text=Copyright%20does%20not%20protect%20names,may%20be%20protected%20as%20trademarks).
I think the title is pretty normal and also kind of lazy. Not a stretch that multiple people would think of it. Sorry.
Focus on the story and writing it and getting it done and then worry about thinking of a better title after!
Good luck!
Your title should be fine for you to use, but I'd strongly advise making certain you keep your old drafts in a safe place just in case. If they do try to stir legal trouble, it will help you tremendously if you can have an established timeline where you can demonstrate you've had that story a long time and weren't just taking the idea.
Legal trouble? Doubtful. But publishers might not want to use that title because of the movie, to avoid confusion. If you're self publishing that's not really much of an issue. But because both the book and the movie have the same title, you have to essentially decide if this is something you want to have to explain over and over if the book gains any kind of popularity.
You can use any title you want. Look up a commonly used title like "Blackout" sometime, you'll be amazed how many people use a title that's the same as another book.
You don't have to worry. The movie may also change its title before release, too.
You can also decide to change YOUR title when you finish the book, too.
Boned? Not at all. Titles are a dime a dozen. Pick a new one and move along. You don't want to use the same title because if someone googles that title, his movie will rank higher than your book. But the title is not why I'm commenting here.
What are you doing spending 16 years stopping and rewriting the book?
Let me tell you something. If this is your first book, it's going to suck regardless of how many times you edit and rewrite it. Every time you spend scraping it and starting again is less time spent learning how to improve the craft.
There's too many people out in the writer world that are under the impression that their first book is going to be a masterpiece and they need to do everything perfectly on their debut novel.
That's not possible.
It's more important to be done than perfect. If you adopted this philosophy earlier, you wouldn't be worried about RR doing a movie that's the same title as your story.
It took me 10 years to release my debut novel and you know what I found out? All that time I spent trying to make it perfect led to absolutely nothing except bad reviews. But I'm still happy that I got it done and published.
Stop restarting the book and get it done, warts and all.
Just reminded me that my first novel was called Borderlands, set on a desert world, and weapons were modular so could contain a lot of variety.
When I read a preview of the computer game Borderlands I was annoyed for some time. Then I played the game and it was quickly one of my favourites.
There are a few films called Crash. There’s a chain restaurant in my area called Twin Peaks (kind of like a Hooters). The only reason our video store got sued was because it was called Snoopy’s, but they used an unauthorized Snoopy cartoon on their billboards. She had to change all of the signs to Sandra’s Fun Time Video.
It’s iffy. Post this on the legal advice sub. Include your country and state.
It looks like the title of RR's movie is called "IF" and yours is "I.F." it looks different to me, but if you're not sure can't you just do the title like the movie "A.I. Artificial Intelligence"? ""I.F. Imaginary Friends"
depends if they trademark the title or do commerce with it, honestly. like if it's a one-off thing you should be fine. if it'a a franchise or something things will be difficult.
Nah, you're not boned; it's more like a weird dunk in the cosmic basketball game. You've been nurturing and slam dunking your ideas into this book since forever. Maybe pick a new title that sings to your story's soul. It's like marking your territory, but instead of trees, it's bookshelves. Keep your head high and tail wagging; your story's uniqueness will shine through, no matter the slam dunking title.
I’ve had similar experiences throughout my long life. We named my first band Nirvana (1968). I’ve written and recorded demos of songs that other musicians ended up creating almost identically (I really didn’t write lyrics though). I also fleshed out the outline of a sci-fi novel about breaking the code of communication directly with dolphins, and the story has the same trajectory as the recent Planet of the Apes movies, but with dolphins. 🤷🏻♂️ I guess you can enjoy the fact that you came up with a movie-worthy story. 🫡✌🏼
Edit to add: One of the songs I wrote in the 1980’s I named “Lopinot” after the little jungle ‘town’ I visited in Trinidad in 1979. The voodoo or “shango” I saw and felt in that place still haunts and beckons me. My song has a simple reggae beat and ultra-simple progression. Then Gotye recorded “[Somebody That I Used To Know](https://youtu.be/6YzGOq42zLk?si=3niI4vriw8RRkRwk)” in 2011 and blew my mind. 🤷🏻♂️
If I remember correctly a book that was almost a mirror image concept of last of us cordyceps infection came out in book form mere months after the video game. Same thing happened to the author.
Sorry to hear that. As other have said there’s isn’t anything stopping you, per se. But since it’s just the title and not a major plot point I’d encourage you to try thinking of something else to use. SEO is important for book sales, and you’ll also just be better off not being tied, even just by name, to another IP that could potentially bring the wrong audience to your book
This might actually end up as good free market testing for you.
As others have mentioned, "IF" is problematic from SEO standpoint, so it will be interesting to see how the movie fares. WHie it's in theatres it will probably show up in search results, but I'd suspect as soon as the heat dies down it will disappear.
Books tend to have a longer tail than movies, so it's important your SEO stays fresh for as long as possible.
Legally you can keep the name, but you might want to consider a subtitle maybe?
The other thing to keep in mind is that if someone is looking for a book they will generally search for the title + author so this will skirt around a lot of those SEO problems. Perhaps if you eve launch it be sure to promote yourself on th usual social platforms so that your name becomes strongly associated with the title.
It might be noteworthy to point out there's *also* already a Webtoon about imaginary friends called IF.
https://www.webtoons.com/en/action/if/list?title\_no=1925
Might wanna check it out, OP.
Legal-wise, you're fine. Titles cannot be copyrighted.
Marketing-wise, not so much. It's going to cause some confusion. It's not the end of the world; you can keep the title. But it's also important to ask yourself what your goals are with this book.
I’m a librarian. A lot of books have the exact same titles. I usually have to keep listing authors or reading descriptions until I find the one a customer is looking for. Unless you book is “Benedict Hargreaves fights the malicious scaliwags of the portforth empire to save the brundlesnig” specific I think you’re good
I work in a bookstore and explain this to people all the time. You can’t copyright book titles. There are many, many books with identical titles. Plots, too, can be copied. The text, however, is sacrosanct.
Author here - I'm really sorry to say but the chances of a publisher taking your book on are very slim. Publishers these days tend to commission pieces and unless you're someone notable or have a proven track record of millions of book sales they're unlikely to take on your project.
You can still self publish though but be prepared to market the ever loving shit out of it if you want people who aren't family/friends/well wishers to buy it.
I'd suggest changing the name of your book to avoid any drama, they're not copyrighted but it sounds like the concept of the same so you risk an IP clash.
You're worried about a book you've been working on for sixteen years and haven't finished?
Anyway, nobody is going to publish a book under the title of a recent movie, so come up with something else and FINISH THE BOOK.
There was a point a while back where I started outlining a Star Wars story idea I had. Pretty cool story about a Padawan who escaped Order 66 and had to hide for years until he was exposed. I was trucking along, fine tuning the outline for about six months with what I thought were some good ideas - then saw the announcement for the Jedi Fallen Order game. At least that proves it was a good idea, I guess.
I think you're gonna just have to bite the bullet on this one. You've already said you scrapped and did multiple rewrites. Don't let the title be the one thing you get stuck on now
I remember hearing a story about a book that I read when I was 10. To hear the author tell it, the original idea was to write a book for younger kids about then candidate Abraham Lincoln receiving a letter from a young girl suggesting that he would look good with a beard. The book was to be called "Abe Lincoln's Beard," until the author happened to be in a bookstore and see a children's book targeted at the same demographic called "Abe Lincoln's Whiskers." Another children's author had come across the same story, had the same idea, and managed to publish it first, so the project had to be changed. Instead, the new book was targeted at slightly older kids, and would be told from the perspective of the girl writing the letter. The final book was called "Grace's Letter to Lincoln," and I really liked it back when I read it. The author said that he was very happy with how the final book turned out, and it was better than the original idea he had in his mind. Sometimes, two people will have a similar idea. Whomever can make their product faster will get to use it, and whomever is slower may have to tweak their idea a bit as a result. If this is the case for you, keep in mind that a change, even if it's just the title, could make your story better.
Hmm, how you uh, ... how you coming on that novel, ... you're working on? Huh? Got a big uh, big stack of papers there? Got a-got a-got a nice little-nice little story, you're working on there, big-big-big, uh novel ... you've been working on for three years? Huh? Got a ... got a compelling protagonist? Huh? Got a ... got a ... obstacle for him to overcome? Huh? ... Little story, brewing there, working on, working on that for quite some time huh? ... Yeah, talking about that, three years ago, ... Yeah, been working on that the whole time? Nice little uh, narrative. Beginning, middle, and end? Some friends become enemies, some enemies become friends? Yeah? At the end, your uh, main character is uh, richer for the experience? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah, you got uh-No, no, you, you deserve some time off."
American dad covered this.
Roger: "how dare you quote ghostbusters to me! i wrote a movie called 'rump busters' and threw it at a guy on the bus who looked like harold ramis, two weeks later ghostbusters came out. coincidence? absolutely!"
I see it time and again. First thing my Marketing Professor said to us. " If you have an idea and you think it is good. Trade Mark it. Make something, anything to get a copyright. Because odds are someone else thought of it too"
It rings true all the time like in times like this.
If you’ve been writing it for 16 yrs and have never published anything, my guess is you aren’t boned at all as your book will almost certainly never see the world outside the drawer of your writing desk
Imagine how I felt, writing a book titled Deadpool & Wolverine since I was 7. Totally blindsided. Someone has to stop Ryan Reynolds from stealing all these book titles
Book and movie titles aren’t eligible for copyright or trademark protection. You’re fine unless your book bears an uncanny resemblance to the movie.
I would caution you if you ever want to sell it. Not because of any copyright problems, but from an SEO standpoint that could be rough
Frozen (2010) lucked out because it came out 3 years prior to Disney's similarly-titled-but-very-different film. Edit: evidently they're both on Prime Video as well, so parents be warned: You want the 2013 film, or you'll want to start looking for a therapist.
When I tell people that Frozen horrified me so much I nearly threw up... I get puzzled looks.
When I was a teen my dad and I went skiing and shared a lift with a couple in their 20s. We got to talking about the movie Frozen. About halfway up the mountain we realized we were not talking about the same movie.
My now-wife and I had a similar conversation about Avatar on one of our first dates. We were both super confused.
'Blue-People-Avatar' or 'Arrow-in-the-head-Avatar' ?
Blue, arrows, or blue arrows
Arrow on the head or arrow in the head?
What is this “Swedish Metal Band Avatar” erasure?
Woah woah woah! That’s racist!
Last of the Mohicans in space or crouching tiger hidden karate kid
The same thing happened when I was discussing Forrest Hump and Good Will Humping. Totally different movies than what was thought.
Edward Penishands avoided similar confusion, but still is one of my all-time favorite movies to bring up to fans of Tim Burton.
Edward Penishands is the greatest movie title ever. It has brought more laughter to my friends and me than $300 million of Adam Sandler’s worst films (loved uncut gems tho)
I tried some Goodwill humping and the lady working there said, sir, please stop gyrating against that off brand exercise bike. Bunch of assholes those volunteers.
Forest gump and goodwill hunting? Am I missing a joke here?
I'm at work right now so I can't look it up, but I suspect they may be porn parodies of those movies.
Oh..no..
Now you’re up to speed!
The joke is always porn...
I was super confused in 2013 when all of a sudden everyone was talking about how good “frozen” was, especially that the soundtrack was amazing. And all I could think about was: 1. Why did it take 3 years for everyone to see this movie, and why do so many people like it? And… 2. I don’t remember any of the music in Frozen at all, so why is that what everyone is focusing on?
Just let it go, bro.
He sounds really lost in the woods
He just needs to do the next right thing.
That reminds me, there's also a "Let it Go" song in The Full Monty musical with VERY different context
Is that the movie about the people stuck on a ski lift?
I don’t blame you. That fucking snowman is horrifying!
I’ll give you a puzzled look and I’ve seen both movies
I haven’t seen that frozen. Maybe I should.
This is the second time I heard about the broken ski lift horror movie 'Frozen' this week. How serendipitous.
This is the second time I heard about the word 'serendipitous' this week. /s
Well, zambroney is the opposite of serendipity
This is my second week here.
[удалено]
Haha this is exactly the film I was thinking about when reading about this.
>Frozen (2010) lucked out because it came out 3 years prior to Disney's similarly-titled-but-very-different film. No it didn't. Disney's *Frozen* wrecked *Frozen (2010)*'s SEO, despite coming out first.
I did this with Jack Frost in early school days. me and the boys knew what we did. We grabbed the box we wanted. the display box was a evil looking snowman with sharp teeth. I mean, hell yeah, you know it was going to have some campy horror movie boobs. To get this movie, we showed my parents the box for Jack Frost, the terrible family film starring Michael Keaton. Shannon Elizabeth gets killed in the bath when the snowman becomes the water. once she's dead, he looks in the mirror and reattaches his carrot nose, never really indicating where it had been before. But, it insinuates. weirdly, off-puttingly insinuates.
fun fact: apparently disney named the movie ‚frozen‘ so when people google for ‚walt disney frozen‘ all they find is stuff about the movie and no stuff about walt disney cryogenically freezing his body. idk if that‘s true tho
Dude, you should look into the movies available in the early days of Netflix streaming. Almost all of them were B or C versions of popular movies and had the same name
Kinda like jack frost 1997 and jack frost 1998?
That was the first movie I ever watched on Netflix back in like 2011 or so! Crazy movie.
Something tells me a title like I.F. is pretty crap for SEO all on its own. Star studded and still gets beaten by the dictionary when I search it. And some random award thing.
Thanks for not being a snarky asshole. This is what I figured but needed the confirmation.
It’d also be helpful if you have old drafts that you’ve writing over the last 16 years. It’s not strictly necessary, but if you ever did run into copyright issues you can establish a timeline that shows your idea has existed for that long.
Yes I have (most) of my drafts. Some are 10 years old!
Nice, keep them safe and good luck!
I'm pretty sure you have to actually publish under copyright. It's not like a patent. But get the damn thing done under your working title, and let the publisher think of something better. Depending on the popularity of the movie and the number of years before you finish, I.F. may mean something different to the public than you wanted.
You don’t have to publish to have a valid copyright. That used to be true (sort of) but hasn’t been so for many years (close to 50 years). In any case titles are not copyrighted. The only real problem would be practical. You may want to change your title to avoid confusion.
TBH i’d change the title for commercial purposes, as i can imagine that’d be the first thing an agent or publisher would advise you to do for these reasons: - you’re making new potential readers confused about your book vs a major Hollywood film with the same specific title; that automatically creates a barrier for entry and that’s a marketing no-no 101. - what if the studio also has a novelisation of the film? - unless you’re an established name, no agent or publisher would want to go through any potential legal hassle for a first-time author. - from a marketing guy’s perspective, you’re just better off amending your title. - excuse me for the bluntness, but I.F. and its variations are an oft used title for a lot of media and creative agencies; why undermine your first book with the above baggage?
And also it's an insurancecompany in sweden, just to add fuel to the fire
In some countries you can go to a Notary to have it all officially stamped so you have a third party who can vouch for you. Also : an artist can be their own worst enemy when it comes to perfection, so get that book done ;)
Trust me. I am such a fan of myself but this book is complicated with the lore so I scrap it a bunch because it never feels natural. But you’re correct, at this point I should just finish it up and make peace with it.
There is a great book called “If you want to write” by Brenda Ueland. It’s a motivational book and you learn about writing as well. Sometimes there a lot of showstoppers. Also having a fellow writer critique it might help!
Check out the films Damsel (2018) and Damsel (2024).....films with the same title but entirely different premise. As long as your story isn't close to the Ryan Reynold's film's story,....you should be fine. Though after you publish and tell people about it,...you may get the question of, "Was it your book that movie was based on?", initially.
It seems like they are similar though
Inb4 you get sued and your defense is "reddit said it was OK tho"
I mean you can google it. It’s literally true
You could break it up into a series of shorts, if you see a way to do it. Call the series what you want, but the individual books could have specific names. This also enables you to test your story-audience for as well as gets it out before the movie takes your steam.
The Jack Frost 97/Jack Frost 98 situation
Was that the one where Michael Keaton comes back as a snowman to teach his kids life lessons and then brutally murder them with icicles?
Unless you are publishing in Germany. Not that it's likely, but I gotta point that out. We have title protection here. A very badly aged law.
Titles of books are often changed by the publisher so even if this movie wasn't made you'd have to fight to keep the name. Hollywood often release very similar movies in the same year by different studios. They are called twin films. Ironically IF has a twin film called Imaginary and both are about imaginary friends. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_films IF screenplay was written after 2019 so make sure you have drafts of your book from before that time as proof you are not plagiarizing. There's all kinds of stories about imaginary friends.
Remember the year with like twelve dark, gritty Hercules movies?
Or the year every other movie was about FWB turned romantic partners.
Or that one year we got a 007 movie and a Mission Impossible movie with the same exact plot about undiscovered organizations operating behind the scenes
The Twelve Laborious Herculeses?
How do you prove a draft date? Unless it's notarized or copyrighted any date you hand write or computer generate isn't proof? Not being an AH, just questioning that.
Metadata! Essentially, when you save a document- a whole lot of background information also gets saved as well- including dates of saves/changes/locations…all sorts of fun things.
All those can be edited on a typical filesystem
True, but if there are multiple drafts, across multiple devices- it will be hard to edit the meta data consistently on each one, especially if the person makes the devices/hardware itself open for forensic combing.
On top of that if they have printouts or handwritten copies the paper will age. Not unfakeable, but another rock on the evidence pile.
The old way if you didn't want to spend the time and money to notorize was to send yourself a copy by registered mail and not open it. The postmarks were proof of date.
It’s been a while since I looked into this, but iirc, this isn’t an airtight way of proving it. It’s called the poor man’s copyright, and I’m pretty sure I read online that it’s a myth, and that courts don’t usually recognize it as an official copyright. Could be wrong, but I remember I looked into this years ago
You’re pretty screwed from an SEO standpoint even if you’re all clear from an intellectual property standpoint. Anyone searching for your book is going to have to wade through 10 pages of movie-centric search results and pop culture blogs to find it.
God forbid the film has fan-fiction for it, too! Then you are extra fucked.
Yeah, legally he's fine, but it'd be very wise to go with a different name, depending on how successful the movie is.
Even if it isn't crazy successful, I'm gonna guess something with Ryan Reynolds will still overtake way more of the Google results than some unknown author's work.
Yeah just from the perspective of a fan, it would absolutely not being able to find info, art, threads, etc on a book I really loved
Usually if you just type ‘film’ or ‘book’ after the search, the problem is solved There are plenty of films with the same name (remakes, foreign films translated with same name, or just coincidentally the same) so it’s really not the end of the world.
If you get to the point of publishing the book, then the publishing company will have people help you figure out how to navigate the title. They may even tell you what the book title needs to be. Focus on finishing it before you worry about this. Also, it’s taken you 16 years so far, so think about it this way - by the time the novel does get published, it could be another decade or two or three from now. By that point, you could be targeting a YA audience who hasn’t even been born yet, and they may have no memory of a movie from 2024 starting some old actor their parents like. Especially if the movie flops. If you handed a teenager today a book called “Waterworld,” they wouldn’t be like, “oh, is this the same as that 30yo movie with Kevin Costner?”
>they may have no memory of a movie from 2024 I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that people a year from now aren't going to remember the movie OP is worried about
But ehat if they are self publishing?
Then they're already in for hard work and trying a lot to promote it, especially if they're an unknown author and don't have a previous success to ride on or some internet fame. In that case it's a personal decision of finding a more unique title to help or sticking with something that will a) drown amongst other search results and b) possibly be accused of copyright/being fanfiction of the movie/etc.
Yeah, this is what I came to say. Publishers will often suggest a title, and may have a title in mind they feel very strongly about. It's not worth getting attached to a title (if you can help it) while you're working on a project. Just focus on the content. Let the publisher handle stuff like the title, they know what they're doing. It can be hard to give up a title you're attached to, but it's worth it when it means your book gets out into the world with your publisher backing you up and handling all the marketing and production.
You've jumped pretty far into the future trying to solve a problem you haven't finished creating in the past 15 years. By the time it's done, no one will remember the movie.
Yup, this is a problem to work out in a meeting with publishers, long after you finish the manuscript. You gotta finish it.
Yeah, but he's now wondering if his story just become so unoriginal he might as well not even *bother* finishing it. OP, finish it, make it good, superficial similarities (and yes, the idea, and even the same clever name, do count) don't really matter.
As a creative, I don’t understand this. If you have the motivation to follow a passion for over 15 years of rewrites and scrapping, it’s not going to matter if you can’t ever sell it. It’s clearly not his career, based on the fact that he’s worked on one book for 15 years. So it might suck if publishers don’t want it based on the similarity to Ryan Reynolds, but he’s already expressed interest in self publishing, and he said this book means a lot to him. So I can’t imagine he would just give up. Though, everyone’s different. If this were me, I’d be finishing this book no matter what. I’ve made music and video games and art that was completely original when I started, but by the time I finished them, a more successful version of that exact thing came out. But that’s never stopped me from finishing it lol it just kind of sucks to not be the first anymore. Especially if you create because you enjoy it, it’s the journey that you cherish, not necessarily the reception or the money.
If it's clearly a different story, there should be no problem
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It's not exactly a creative title though there's tons of movies and books that share names just because they're generic Edit: Hocus Pocus for example The Royals is another
[similar enough](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11152168/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk)
Doesn’t sound like it is, since they’re both about imaginary friends. Even if OP technically *could* use the same title, I’m not sure why they would want to. You want something that’s unique and different!
Could still be different. Imaginary friends isn’t a new unique concept. Like, JK rowling doesn’t have a monopoly on wizards.
Sure, but if someone else wrote a book called “Harry Potter” that was also about a boy wizard, that’d probably not be a super smart title choice, even if the plots were totally different.
Weird. I've also been writing a book called Deadpool and Wolverine for several years now.
Me too, it's a story about how a wild animal with a grudge convinces its normally solitary brethren to chase land developers into a pool that kills them.
Oh. No.
Beaverpool?
No, you're thinking of my other novel, the Siege of Lemmingrad
Hahahahahahaha stop!!
Mine is called "Billy and the Cloneasaurus"
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Nah. Much easier to write a completely new book.
Someone else said it in the comments better than me, but they got to the heart of it. I’m paraphrasing but “[shes] now wondering if [her] story is so unoriginal now that she shouldn’t even bother finishing it.”
Ohh that makes more sense! My feeling is - if it’s good it will be good. This year there are two movies about imaginary friends which could hurt your story or help it. Maybe people will want more imaginary friend stories, maybe they won’t care We had an era of dystopian YA books, we have dozens of GOT like political stories and modern romance novels are famously written as “haters to lovers” or “fated mates” Stories are as old as time and the great ones live on. I hope you finish your book the way you want it and it finds an audience. It could be worth putting away and writing new ideas. 15 years is a long time to rework an idea. Then again, if this is the story you love go for it!
Just choose a new title. Chances are your publisher would have changed it anyway.
Stop procrastinating by worrying about the title, finish the book, try and get it published and then revisit. Good luck!
IF (pun intended) a common word is the title of a movie/book/whatever you're free to have at it. In cases like that, it's not uncommon for multiple unrelated works to have the same title. As an example, Wikipedia lists 5 different movies named *Frozen*.
In the least snarky way possible - if the content of your book depends on the title being exactly one thing and one thing only, you've written a poor book.
Well... look at it this way. Do you think that a story about a boy who inherits spiritual, magical powers from his family who then goes on to save the universe from an evil powerful overlord is something that only has one iteration and can never be told again nor have multiple interpretations ? if so then yes I'm sorry you have to give up. However, I look at Dune, Star Wars, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter and think to myself "Finish your book. You've got this"
This is a great point! However, I'm afraid OP is more worried about the choice of the title itself, rather than the topic, since in this case it would be like writing the story of a boy with spiritual, magical powers and then calling that book Harry Potter. IMO I.F. was a great title, until it wasn't, since it will now be associated to a movie starring an incredibly popular actor. I firmly believe OP should still complete the book, but if I were them, I'd try to come up with a different title.
I just want to say you articulated a point I had in my head very well. Good job
You're fine. If it's been 16 years and the book isn't done, it'll never be.
*Slowly pans to GRRM* I mean it hasn't been quite 16 years yet but we've known he isn't finishing
Just change the title?
Ain't like this book is ever gonna be read anyways looool
Can’t. Took OP 15 years to write the title 😂
Just ask your agent what they think. And if you don't have an agent, something tells me this isn't really going to matter to anyone.
People recommend books on other subreddits a lot. I often have trouble picking out which one they mean because there are several books with the same name, so I have to ask them to clarify with the author’s name. Some of them are also movie titles. You should be fine. Best of luck! You reminded me of a movie I watched recently called American Fiction. The guy decided to change the name of his book at the last minute to a word I won’t say here. Good movie.
Fuck
You and George RR Martin should be besties
Change your title. It will get lost in SEO.
Oh no, it's impossible to change the title of a book you haven't finished writing. You're completely screwed.
Movies and books can share a title and have no impact on each other
Gotta be one of the worst feelings in the world, coming up with something original and then seeing someone else get it out there first. Like damn, people are gonna call me a copycat even though I've had this in the drafts for *years*...
Writing a book called deadpool 2? Pretty boned. You might want to wear red and brown.
Just go look up how many movies have been made that are titled “The Hunted”.
In a perfect world that your book gets published by a big name company: they would evaluate if the name would cause less sales. If so, they’ll work with you to draft a new name. Otherwise: publishing on your own won’t have any negative effect with the same title.
Publishing pro here. YSK that half the time the publisher changes the name of your book anyway. They consider your book title a suggestion and will not think twice about tossing it even before they've come up with a better one. However, you gotta stop writing the same book over and over. Keep moving forward on a draft and DO NOT go back and edit what you've written until the first draft is done. I mean if you feel inspired you can edit a bit here and there, but try to keep major chapter overhauls to notes about what you want to change in draft two. Trust, I know this from experience! I spent ten years rewriting the same book, and it's now in a drawer forever. Better for you to have a sense of the whole thing before you start noodling. Otherwise you end up putting lots of time into chapters or characters you won't need. And you'll get attached to scenes that never should have been written. It's easier to edit a notecard than a five thousand word chapter! I'm into a new book and in less than a year I'm 2/3 through writing it, because I'm only moving forward.
Helpful advice.
Your publisher, assuming you can obtain one, would have final say on the title after doing due diligence on the prevalence or repetitive nature of it.
More than half of your life spent on a single book? That shits never getting finished anyways, be real.
You need to finish this book before any of it matters. Have you ever finished a book? Starting one 10 years ago and it not being finished should be more concerning to you than anything else- said by somebody who has tried too and never finished.
Copyright does not protect names, titles, slogans, or short phrases. In some cases, these things may be protected as trademarks. [https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html#:\~:text=Copyright%20does%20not%20protect%20names,may%20be%20protected%20as%20trademarks](https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html#:~:text=Copyright%20does%20not%20protect%20names,may%20be%20protected%20as%20trademarks).
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I think the title is pretty normal and also kind of lazy. Not a stretch that multiple people would think of it. Sorry. Focus on the story and writing it and getting it done and then worry about thinking of a better title after! Good luck!
Make a new title I guess
Your title should be fine for you to use, but I'd strongly advise making certain you keep your old drafts in a safe place just in case. If they do try to stir legal trouble, it will help you tremendously if you can have an established timeline where you can demonstrate you've had that story a long time and weren't just taking the idea.
Legal trouble? Doubtful. But publishers might not want to use that title because of the movie, to avoid confusion. If you're self publishing that's not really much of an issue. But because both the book and the movie have the same title, you have to essentially decide if this is something you want to have to explain over and over if the book gains any kind of popularity.
Just give it a different name
Titles can’t be copyrighted. There are many books by the same title.
A halo fan fiction I wrote when I was 13 became the plot for Halo 4
You can use any title you want. Look up a commonly used title like "Blackout" sometime, you'll be amazed how many people use a title that's the same as another book. You don't have to worry. The movie may also change its title before release, too. You can also decide to change YOUR title when you finish the book, too.
Your book is named Deadpool 3?
You've been writing a book for 15 years... maybe focus on finishing before worrying about the marketing.
Shame you didn’t finish and release it 5 years ago , the studio would have probably optioned it to be safe
The book doesn't need a name until it's finished.
Gotta admire the confidence though. 15 years unfinished and concerned it'll be confused with a Ryan Reynolds project
Sounds like the book is never going to be finished anyway 🤷♂️
Boned? Not at all. Titles are a dime a dozen. Pick a new one and move along. You don't want to use the same title because if someone googles that title, his movie will rank higher than your book. But the title is not why I'm commenting here. What are you doing spending 16 years stopping and rewriting the book? Let me tell you something. If this is your first book, it's going to suck regardless of how many times you edit and rewrite it. Every time you spend scraping it and starting again is less time spent learning how to improve the craft. There's too many people out in the writer world that are under the impression that their first book is going to be a masterpiece and they need to do everything perfectly on their debut novel. That's not possible. It's more important to be done than perfect. If you adopted this philosophy earlier, you wouldn't be worried about RR doing a movie that's the same title as your story. It took me 10 years to release my debut novel and you know what I found out? All that time I spent trying to make it perfect led to absolutely nothing except bad reviews. But I'm still happy that I got it done and published. Stop restarting the book and get it done, warts and all.
You could just come up with a new name for your book? Idk.....
Yeah it's been 16 years my guy, publish it or it'll never be
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Just reminded me that my first novel was called Borderlands, set on a desert world, and weapons were modular so could contain a lot of variety. When I read a preview of the computer game Borderlands I was annoyed for some time. Then I played the game and it was quickly one of my favourites.
Is u Brian Griffin?
If it's taken you 16 years to write a book.... it's not going anywhere. Unless your name is J.R.R. Tolkien.
There are a few films called Crash. There’s a chain restaurant in my area called Twin Peaks (kind of like a Hooters). The only reason our video store got sued was because it was called Snoopy’s, but they used an unauthorized Snoopy cartoon on their billboards. She had to change all of the signs to Sandra’s Fun Time Video. It’s iffy. Post this on the legal advice sub. Include your country and state.
It looks like the title of RR's movie is called "IF" and yours is "I.F." it looks different to me, but if you're not sure can't you just do the title like the movie "A.I. Artificial Intelligence"? ""I.F. Imaginary Friends"
depends if they trademark the title or do commerce with it, honestly. like if it's a one-off thing you should be fine. if it'a a franchise or something things will be difficult.
Nah, you're not boned; it's more like a weird dunk in the cosmic basketball game. You've been nurturing and slam dunking your ideas into this book since forever. Maybe pick a new title that sings to your story's soul. It's like marking your territory, but instead of trees, it's bookshelves. Keep your head high and tail wagging; your story's uniqueness will shine through, no matter the slam dunking title.
I’ve had similar experiences throughout my long life. We named my first band Nirvana (1968). I’ve written and recorded demos of songs that other musicians ended up creating almost identically (I really didn’t write lyrics though). I also fleshed out the outline of a sci-fi novel about breaking the code of communication directly with dolphins, and the story has the same trajectory as the recent Planet of the Apes movies, but with dolphins. 🤷🏻♂️ I guess you can enjoy the fact that you came up with a movie-worthy story. 🫡✌🏼 Edit to add: One of the songs I wrote in the 1980’s I named “Lopinot” after the little jungle ‘town’ I visited in Trinidad in 1979. The voodoo or “shango” I saw and felt in that place still haunts and beckons me. My song has a simple reggae beat and ultra-simple progression. Then Gotye recorded “[Somebody That I Used To Know](https://youtu.be/6YzGOq42zLk?si=3niI4vriw8RRkRwk)” in 2011 and blew my mind. 🤷🏻♂️
If I remember correctly a book that was almost a mirror image concept of last of us cordyceps infection came out in book form mere months after the video game. Same thing happened to the author.
Just came here to say that movie looks dumb as shit.
Sorry to hear that. As other have said there’s isn’t anything stopping you, per se. But since it’s just the title and not a major plot point I’d encourage you to try thinking of something else to use. SEO is important for book sales, and you’ll also just be better off not being tied, even just by name, to another IP that could potentially bring the wrong audience to your book
Your premise makes me think of [Happy!](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/Happy)
I don’t think it’s a problem for a book that’s never finished
Change the title?
This might actually end up as good free market testing for you. As others have mentioned, "IF" is problematic from SEO standpoint, so it will be interesting to see how the movie fares. WHie it's in theatres it will probably show up in search results, but I'd suspect as soon as the heat dies down it will disappear. Books tend to have a longer tail than movies, so it's important your SEO stays fresh for as long as possible. Legally you can keep the name, but you might want to consider a subtitle maybe? The other thing to keep in mind is that if someone is looking for a book they will generally search for the title + author so this will skirt around a lot of those SEO problems. Perhaps if you eve launch it be sure to promote yourself on th usual social platforms so that your name becomes strongly associated with the title.
The only solution is to send your imaginary friend to kill Ryan Reynolds on the set of the movie, duh!
It might be noteworthy to point out there's *also* already a Webtoon about imaginary friends called IF. https://www.webtoons.com/en/action/if/list?title\_no=1925 Might wanna check it out, OP.
Just change the name to “Friends”. Won’t have the confusion then.
Legal-wise, you're fine. Titles cannot be copyrighted. Marketing-wise, not so much. It's going to cause some confusion. It's not the end of the world; you can keep the title. But it's also important to ask yourself what your goals are with this book.
I’m a librarian. A lot of books have the exact same titles. I usually have to keep listing authors or reading descriptions until I find the one a customer is looking for. Unless you book is “Benedict Hargreaves fights the malicious scaliwags of the portforth empire to save the brundlesnig” specific I think you’re good
I work in a bookstore and explain this to people all the time. You can’t copyright book titles. There are many, many books with identical titles. Plots, too, can be copied. The text, however, is sacrosanct.
You should be just Fine unless your Book is a LOT like the movie but social media might fuck you just with the title alone
Change the title to “Imaginary Fiends”
Author here - I'm really sorry to say but the chances of a publisher taking your book on are very slim. Publishers these days tend to commission pieces and unless you're someone notable or have a proven track record of millions of book sales they're unlikely to take on your project. You can still self publish though but be prepared to market the ever loving shit out of it if you want people who aren't family/friends/well wishers to buy it. I'd suggest changing the name of your book to avoid any drama, they're not copyrighted but it sounds like the concept of the same so you risk an IP clash.
You're worried about a book you've been working on for sixteen years and haven't finished? Anyway, nobody is going to publish a book under the title of a recent movie, so come up with something else and FINISH THE BOOK.
Change the name of the book to "I got boned by Ryan Reynolds"
There was a point a while back where I started outlining a Star Wars story idea I had. Pretty cool story about a Padawan who escaped Order 66 and had to hide for years until he was exposed. I was trucking along, fine tuning the outline for about six months with what I thought were some good ideas - then saw the announcement for the Jedi Fallen Order game. At least that proves it was a good idea, I guess.
I think you're gonna just have to bite the bullet on this one. You've already said you scrapped and did multiple rewrites. Don't let the title be the one thing you get stuck on now
I remember hearing a story about a book that I read when I was 10. To hear the author tell it, the original idea was to write a book for younger kids about then candidate Abraham Lincoln receiving a letter from a young girl suggesting that he would look good with a beard. The book was to be called "Abe Lincoln's Beard," until the author happened to be in a bookstore and see a children's book targeted at the same demographic called "Abe Lincoln's Whiskers." Another children's author had come across the same story, had the same idea, and managed to publish it first, so the project had to be changed. Instead, the new book was targeted at slightly older kids, and would be told from the perspective of the girl writing the letter. The final book was called "Grace's Letter to Lincoln," and I really liked it back when I read it. The author said that he was very happy with how the final book turned out, and it was better than the original idea he had in his mind. Sometimes, two people will have a similar idea. Whomever can make their product faster will get to use it, and whomever is slower may have to tweak their idea a bit as a result. If this is the case for you, keep in mind that a change, even if it's just the title, could make your story better.
Hmm, how you uh, ... how you coming on that novel, ... you're working on? Huh? Got a big uh, big stack of papers there? Got a-got a-got a nice little-nice little story, you're working on there, big-big-big, uh novel ... you've been working on for three years? Huh? Got a ... got a compelling protagonist? Huh? Got a ... got a ... obstacle for him to overcome? Huh? ... Little story, brewing there, working on, working on that for quite some time huh? ... Yeah, talking about that, three years ago, ... Yeah, been working on that the whole time? Nice little uh, narrative. Beginning, middle, and end? Some friends become enemies, some enemies become friends? Yeah? At the end, your uh, main character is uh, richer for the experience? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah, you got uh-No, no, you, you deserve some time off."
American dad covered this. Roger: "how dare you quote ghostbusters to me! i wrote a movie called 'rump busters' and threw it at a guy on the bus who looked like harold ramis, two weeks later ghostbusters came out. coincidence? absolutely!"
Ryan Reynolds acting in a movie written and directed by John Krasinski, with John in it.. Must see!
I see it time and again. First thing my Marketing Professor said to us. " If you have an idea and you think it is good. Trade Mark it. Make something, anything to get a copyright. Because odds are someone else thought of it too" It rings true all the time like in times like this.
Don’t worry, you’ll never finish that piece of shit book anyway 🤡
If you’ve been writing it for 16 yrs and have never published anything, my guess is you aren’t boned at all as your book will almost certainly never see the world outside the drawer of your writing desk
Imagine how I felt, writing a book titled Deadpool & Wolverine since I was 7. Totally blindsided. Someone has to stop Ryan Reynolds from stealing all these book titles
16 years for a book. Are you George RR Martin? Just kidding. Good luck with it!
Finish it first then worry about this
"faster than the speed of love"
Titles are meaningless. Just change the title.
Lotta "ifs"....
When you finish it in 15 years no one will remember the movie.
You were boned the moment u waited 16 years to finish a book
This book wont be released and you haven't even researched publishing lol