Unauthorized adaptations/remakes
Submitted by Oedipus on Fri, 12/02/2005 - 10:50
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- Ben Hur (1907) - This version was an unauthorized adaption of Lew Wallace's book, and its makers were successfully sued for copyright infringement.
- Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) - An unauthorized adaptation of Dracula by Bram Stoker. All known prints and negatives were destroyed under the terms of settlement of a lawsuit by Bram Stoker's widow. However, the film would subsequently surface in other countries. The only complete, original copy is said to be owned by the German Max Schreck collector Jens Geutebrück.
- Noi vivi (1942) and Addio Kira! (1942) - The film is based on the novel "We the living" by American author Ayn Rand. Director Gofferdo Alessandrini read it and thought it would make an excellent epic, but Italy was at war with the United States and acquiring rights to the novel would be a major obstacle. Following the then laisser-faire attitude regarding what seemed at the time trivial matters, Alessandrini and screenwriter Anton Majano, decided to simply use the novel and base their screenplay on it. Whilst he was working on another film (_Nozze di sangue_ ), Scalera Film, the production company, asked several other writers to rewrite scenes and dialogues from the existing screenplay, but the final draft ended up being so different from Alessandrini and Majano's original screenplay that they both decided to start shooting without a script and just follow the book. They wrote the scenes at night and handed them over to the actors in the morning. As weeks went by it soon became evident that it would take longer than the customary three weeks of shooting to finish this film and that there was also enough material for two films. But nothing was said to the actors, as they probably would have requested to be paid double. Despite the fact that Rand's book is an overt criticism of the communist regime and ideology, the fascist Ministry of Culture soon became aware that Alessandrini was also using the film as a platform to criticise the Mussolini government. The shooting was interrupted several times by fascist officials who demanded to see the rushes, but Alessandrini had two edited copies of the film, one that would be in line with the fascist ideology and another one which reflected his own vision of the story. In September 1942, after nearly five months of shooting, the film was completed and presented at the Venice Film Festival where it received the highest accolade and was awarded the Volpe Cup. It went on general release in November of the same year as two separate films, Noi Vivi and Addio Kira! (1942) and proved to be a resounding success with the Italian public who regarded it as an indirect indictment of the Mussolini regime. But the authorities soon got wind of this and the film was banned after five months, all copies seized and ordered to be destroyed but fortunately one negative was kept and hidden. After the war, Scalera Film approached Ayn Rand to secure the literary rights to the film so it could be re-released, but she refused. A few years later, Scalera Films went into receivership and as part of the inventory of Scalera films, both Noi Vivi and Addio Kira! (1942) were turned over to a holding company, which relegated them to a vault where they remained for over twenty-five years. It was not until the late 1960's that Ayn Rand was able to locate the original nitrate negatives, still in good condition in the vault in Rome. Both films were restored, combined into one, and released (with English subtitles) in 1986 as We the Living (1986) at the Telluride Film festival in Colorado where it received rave reviews, over forty years after its original release.
- Ossessione (1943) - An unauthorized adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain.
- Ace in the Hole (1951) - Actor Victor Desny brought a lawsuit against this film while the script was being written. Desny claimed the film was an unauthorized version of the Floyd Collins story. Collins was actually stuck in a cave years earlier, as mentioned in the film. Since Desny had the rights to the story, he claimed copyright infringement. The lawsuit was settled before production began.
- A Fistful of Dollars (1964) - An unauthorized remake of Yojimbo (1961). The film's US release was delayed when Yojimbo (1961) screenwriters Akira Kurosawa and Ryuzo Kikushima sued the filmmakers for breach of copyright. Kurosawa and Kikushima won and as a result received 15 percent of the film's worldwide gross and exclusive distribution rights for Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Kurosawa said later he made more money off of this project than "Yojimbo".
- Wired (1989) - Because the film is an "unauthorized" biopic, many of the skits and song numbers performed on Saturday Night Live were copyrighted by NBC, so in the film, some were made-up and not in fact actual skits and numbers John performed (i.e. "The Samurai Baseball" skit and the "634-5789" Blues Brothers number)
