Posted by PHlooG at cache.whirlpool.com on August 07, 2001 at 14:14:12:
In Reply to: How are Affleck and Damon not sued by King? posted by Darth Angelus on August 07, 2001 at 12:21:18:
: I was just wondering if anyone can shed light on how Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are not being sued by Stephen King over their new reality show The Runner, which besides the fact the contestants aren't killed on sight, is pretty much a rip-off of King's (as Richard Bachman) The Running Man. The most surprising thing is that in all the articles I've read about the upcoming reality show, not one magazine comments on the similarity
First off, everything I've seen about the show has to do with a person going cross-country without being recognized by people who have signed on to possibly win some money. How this is 'pretty much a rip-off' of The Running Man is beyond me. I think that King should be sued by Elmer Fudd, because his book (which with guilty conscience he penned as Bachman) is a direct rip-off of a number of WB cartoons feature Mr. Fudd doing what? That's right...hunting an intelligent creature.
Second (and more seriously), to give King credit for being the originator of the concept of hunting a person for sport or entertainment is ludicrous. That concept has been done in everything from high-quality films to the pilot for Fantasy Island (see Rourke and State of California versus King, 1988).
I guess I'm hoping this was a bland joke, but it doesn't seem that way.
JT
Who understands why no magazine has noted the striking similarity