Well, I suppose it had to happen sooner or later.



By now, you may have glanced at this poster in your local movie theater.  Or perhaps you caught the trailer in front of the last film you saw.  Universal Pictures is planning a huge marketing blitz for Knocked Up, and if you haven't heard about this movie already -- chances are, you will have by the time you finish reading this.

It's a romantic comedy from the writing / directing team of The 40 Year-Old Virgin.  It stars Seth Rogen (Freaks and Geeks) and Katherine Heigl (Grey's Anatomy), two appealing actors who are definitely on the up-and-up.  It has one of the funnier movie trailers I've seen in a while.  So why am I so freakin' bummed this film is coming out??

Probably because I've already made it.

Err...made something almost exactly like it.  Look, I can't get into this rant without going into plot details of my last film.  So by now, if you haven't already seen Act One, chances are likely that either you don't want to see it, or we're not really friends to begin with.  So if you care to avoid spoilers of any kind, please stop reading now.



Knocked Up, as if you couldn't guess from the title, revolves around an unplanned pregnancy between two single, fun-seeking twenty-somethings.  Rogen plays an immature, carefree bachelor who one night at a club randomly hooks up with an intelligent, successful young woman climbing the corporate ladder of the entertainment industry.  All is fine and dandy as the two go their separate ways the morning after, until...UNTIL...eight weeks later she comes back into his life with some unexpected news.  Surprise!  "I'm pregnant."  "With a baby??"

What's a childish and responsibility-free young man to do?  Well, if he's seen Act One, he knows to give the whole trying-to-change-his-ways-and-raise-a-baby thing a go.  He's got something to prove to not only everyone else around him, but most importantly to himself.  He'll also rely on fleeting support from his drug-induced and alcohol-dependent friends.  Sound familiar?



Listen, I'm not hoping for this movie to fail.   In fact, the trailer shows obvious differences between this film and ours, one of which is so huge I can almost rest easy knowing the filmmakers actually go in that direction (you'll recognize the change if you've seen our movie).  If anything, this experience tells me that perhaps Act One is a more universal story than I originally gave it credit for, now that a studio has thrown millions of dollars into what basically looks like a big-budget remake of our film.  And I'm not bitter about this experience, nor do I think someone "stole" our idea.  I'm not claiming that we're the first ones to come up with this particular coming-of-age story or anything.

What really sucks, though, is that this movie will pretty much nullify our little film.  Once this movie comes out, Act One is going to constantly be compared to Knocked Up -- especially by those people who see our film (made in 2005) only after seeing this new big-budget one.  This will kill the chances of our movie getting into film festivals, video distribution, cable access, etc.  In a nutshell, our film will have already been released in the form of a flashier, more accessible product called Knocked Up.  Really, what will anybody need us for?

If you've seen Act One and haven't yet gotten a chance to view the Knocked Up trailer, check this out.  I tell you, it is uncanny how closely the two films resemble each other.  My jaw was literally hanging open the entire time I first took a look at this.  Even our lead actress, Bettina Adger, slightly resembles Katherine Heigl!!



Oh, well.  I was pissed in 2003 when the movie Old School was released and took the first two words of our Old School Pictures film company name.  I was convinced nobody would be able to see our film logo anymore without thinking of Will Ferrell singing "Dust in the Wind" at that old dude's funeral, but alas...I no longer think that's the case.  Maybe I just need time to let this one come and go.  And, of course, it's a giant kick in the ass for us to move on and get started on another feature project (which we have in the works for fall 2007, thank God).



I'm anxious to see Knocked Up.  I bet I will really enjoy it, as I have a lot of respect for the team behind and in front of the camera for this one.  I like the "Save the due date" tagline on their poster, too.  But I betcha the film won't have this humorous exchange, taken from a scene in Act One:

Kevin: "That's the girl I got pregnant."
Trip: "No shit?  When'dya find out?"
Kevin: "This morning.  Afternoon.  Whatever."
Trip: "Why didn't you use a rubber?"
Kevin: "I did.  I did."
Trip: "Then....why is she...pregnant?"
Kevin: ".....There's, like, a two percent chance those things won't work."
Trip: "Whoa.  That's shitty!"
Kevin: "Yeah, it can be."