Plagiarism, Influence, Homage and Originality

The question of plagiarism, influence, homage, and originality is explored from a screenwriter’s perspective. While clear-cut copying exists, there also exist large grey areas that may be called influence and homage, rather than plagiarism.

Obstacles to clear originality in screenwriting may be unconscious or conscious. The former include the reliance of the medium upon adaptations, the collaborative nature of filmmaking, the concept of the monomyth, and the phenomenon of simultaneous creation. The latter include the desire and necessity of the writer to fit her or his work within existing genres, and the diet of film watching recommended by most books on screenwriting.

While the question may be one of a solution in search of a problem, one possible approach is to encourage adaptations from antiquity, including mythology and Scripture. Such an approach would be working from purer sources that are also in the public domain.