Same Title?

Questionman17

Questionman17

Carbonite Member
Hey guys, I wrote a script called Broken. I am going to start shooting it in a week. I've done all the planning for it and I've registered the script and made copies of it for the actors. I ran into a problem though. I was browsing the net and found another independent film called Broken: A tale by Alex Ferrari. This really sucks because I don't want to reprint all of the scripts (cost me $68). I also don't feel like changing it because I like that title. I had no idea there was someone else that already used that title. How was I supposed to know? Should I worry about this or no? What should I do guys?
 
Registered as what? What's the problem? I named a documentary after a hymn and it eventually won a festival. So, I don't think there's anything to worry about there being more than one movie with the title, "Broken" as likely there are several others you aren't yet aware of and who aren't aware of you.

As an aside, why would you need to re-print all of your scripts? "How Not To Write A Screenplay" by Denny Martin Flinn is a good book on proper formatting of scripts. It's a book of do's and don'ts. It's good for the relentless perfectionist in us all... and good protection when you discover the "right" way of doing things does not involve the title of the script on every single page. Not a problem now since you are doing all the leg work on your own movie, but structure is a good habit to get into for whenever your "big break" comes along. :thumbsup: :)
 
Titles are not copyrighted.

For instance: "Heaven Can Wait" 1943 & 1998 and "Crash" 1996 & 2004.

You just have to be careful of those that are also a TradeMark. ("Star Wars" is probably not a good idea. :) )

Dan
 
GenJerDan hit the nail on the head. Just go to imdb and plug in your title. It will always turn out that five films have the same title.

EJ
 
Yeah, you're fine. You usually can't copyright titles, except in certain unique trademark situations such as "Batman", or as Dan pointed out, "Star Wars".
 
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