Remember When Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis Basically Made the Same Movie in the Same Year?
It’s been a decade since Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis starred in the incredibly similar films No Strings Attached and Friends With Benefits, after which life imitated art.
Over the years, we’ve watched as an idea takes hold of the town in such a way that films released within months of one another wind up competing because they’re, in essence, telling the same story. In 1997, it was Dante’s Peak vs. Volcano. A year later, moviegoers chose sides in the asteroid film face-off between Deep Impact and Armageddon. In 2004, the adventures of the president’s daughter were top of mind in both Chasing Liberty and First Daughter.
It’s a phenomenon known as the twin films, born out of a somewhat cutthroat industry that’s smaller than you might think, where a pass on producing a script just might lead to the desire to compete with it instead. And it dates back to the late ’30s when Bette Davis, having been denied the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind, reportedly sought out a film of her own about a strong-willed Southern woman set against the backdrop of the Civil War.