Johnny Cat pointed out that Stephen King's latest movie novel Under the Dome may cause you to recall the 2007 film The Simpsons, as both involve a city suddenly isolated under a glass dome.
If you've seen the movies and read the book, let us know what you think. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/under-the-dome-by-stephen-king-1818801.html -via The Litter Box
Fans seem less convinced that the novel's conceit – a town discovers that it is encased in a giant dome, put there by an unknown force – is so terrific. Many took to the internet to point out that a similar plot was the basis for The Simpsons Movie. King took to his website to respond that he had never seen the movie and that the similarity came as a complete surprise. Fans reacted with incredulity, pointing out that not only is King a pop- culture omnivore, but has played on stage with The Simpsons creator Matt Groening in his Rock Bottom Remainders band. King then gave a different account of the book's origins, this time saying he started it in 1978 or thereabouts, and wrote a second, unpublished version called The Cannibals in 1985. In order to silence any accusations of plagiarism, he published the first 60 pages on his website (in the original IBM typescript to prove its age).
But the problem is not who had the idea first. King may argue that "stories can be no more alike than snowflakes" as "no two human imaginations are exactly alike", but Stephen King novels and Simpsons movies are similar in that they are big pop-culture events aimed at roughly the same sort of audience – and with such events, the concept is as important as the execution. Also, both film and novel use their conceit to give dramatic focus to tales of the interconnected lives of a large cast of everyday small-town Americans. It doesn't matter whether King has seen the film; his readers have, and this takes some of the shine off his novel.
If you've seen the movies and read the book, let us know what you think. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/under-the-dome-by-stephen-king-1818801.html -via The Litter Box
Maybe they both stole the idea from people in Rochester.
I haven't seen the Simpsons Movie, but I'm reading the book right now, and not really enjoying it very much. I can't imagine though, that the concept of a town surprised to be trapped under a dome is such a unique idea that it's ruining the novel for people who have experienced both. Novels, films, tv, and comic books all dip into the same limited pool of ideas and everyone borrows from everyone else extensively. If King's book was populated by idiotic and hilarious yellow skinned simpletons or an anthropomorphized doughnut sign come to life, I might understand this, but outside of the most basic concept, I doubt there are any other similarities,
In Wyndham's book, the dome is only temporary: when the dome disappears, the residents awake to find all their womenfolk impregnated with strange blonde children. But I can't be the only reader that found the dome the most intriguing idea of the novel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Twilight_Zone_episodes
I mean, cities in domes are a pretty common sci-fi concept...
Ahem.
So too, with "Under the Dome". Hardly an original notion, but intriguing none the less.
So what's next? Well, the idea of "Avatars" hasn't been taken to Mars with robots yet... Just sayin' its coming. Why take people to a planet... we could be creating a robot utopia there now, and visit anytime.
While there have been plenty of Town Under A Dome stories in the past, I think that what makes this so unusual is two things:
One: that they were released so close together;
and Two: that they're both big, not a relatively obscure episode of a TV show or a not-too-well-known writer. The Simpsons is arguably the most known TV show, and King is arguably the most known thriller writer.
I personally don't think that one copied the other. But it's interesting that they were both thought of at around the same time. Whatever we create is influenced by the world we live in, so it's possible that certain influences combined in both King and Groening's minds, causing each to create a Dome story.
It's the same as Dante's Peak/Volcano, Deep Impact/Armageddon, Tombstone/Wyatt Earp... all started with a similar core idea in different people's heads at around the same time. It's only through execution that they become different.
he actually started writing the book ages ago, originally it was called "cannibals". he started writing it once in the 70s then scrapped it, then again in the 80s and scrapped it again.
he finally started again and finished it. while writing it (or maybe right after he finished) he told his sister the basic premise and she said "oh, like the simpsons movie?"
unknown to him, while he was writing the book the simpsons movie was written and released and "stole his idea" (he said this jokingly).
so yeah, they are similar, but each is original in their own rights.
simpsons didn't steal it as king was still writing it and king didn't still eat as he was unaware of the release.
I too have noticed those simultaneous releases. Rumor has always been that leaks of those scripts were what sparked the clones among competing studios.
My main observations are that King and Groenig shared close time with each other, and it's neat that they both went with the dome maguffin, and Simpsons did it better.
The episode was about this town where the people lost their power and communications, and when some of them tried to leave town they found it was surrounded by a glass dome. I think the ending was that the entire town had been taken by aliens and they were no longer on earth but I'm not sure on that part. Does anyone know what show and which episode this was? I'm sure I didn't dream the whole thing. :)
Check out www.amazon.co.uk and search for 'Zoo Event' (US Amazon doesn't have the cover shot)
These are not contractdictory statements and I dislike the way the article implies that they are.