That just seems wrong...RE: "Thirty Minutes or Less"

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Norris

Norris

So, if you've missed the commercials for it, there is a movie coming out called "Thirty Minutes or Less". From the director of Zombieland, starring Danny McBride and Jesse Eisenberg, the plot is (as described on IMDB)
Two fledgling criminals kidnap a pizza delivery guy, strap a bomb to his chest, and inform him that he has mere hours to rob a bank or else...
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Eisenberg is the pizza guy, Mcbride and Nick Swardson play the criminals. Believe it or not, the film is loosely based on a true story - the story of Brian Wells. From Wikipedia:
Brian Douglas Wells (November 15, 1956 – August 28, 2003) was an American pizza delivery man who was killed by a time bomb fastened to his neck, purportedly under coercion from the maker of the bomb. After he was apprehended by the police for robbing a bank, the bomb exploded.
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So yeah. This "wacky" adventure-comedy is based on a true story about a guy who was murdered by his (alleged) co-conspirators in a bank robbery. A robbery/homicide that occurred eight years ago. The amusingly awkward protagonist is based on a dude whose head got blown to smithereens in front of a crowd of cops and on-lookers in broad daylight while everyone waited anxiously for the bomb squad to arrive. This seems...more than a bit disrespectful and even a tad ghoulish, really.

Discuss.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Eight years? That's enough time, and it looks funny.

If they were being it verbatim, names and all, that would be too much, but it seems like they just used the premise, which is fine with me.
 
Norris

Norris

Ravenpoe said:
Eight years? That's enough time, and it looks funny.

If they were being it verbatim, names and all, that would be too much, but it seems like they just used the premise, which is fine with me.
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So, like, eight years from now it will be OK to make a wacky comedy about a mom who murders her daughter and then gets let off in a media circus trial?

In two more years it will be all right to make a wacky comedy about some Dutch guys kidnapping a blonde American girl on Spring Break?

2004 would have been the right time to make a movie about a charmingly awkward pedophile who romances a child beauty queen by breaking into her house at night and eating pineapple with her?
 
phil

phil

Are the film makers even aware of the story? Strapping a bomb to someone and getting them to do your dirty work has been done before. Plus the movie bomb is attached to a vest that he wears. The main similarity is that it's a pizza guy it seems.
 
Norris

Norris

phil said:
Are the film makers even aware of the story? Strapping a bomb to someone and getting them to do your dirty work has been done before. Plus the movie bomb is attached to a vest that he wears. The main similarity is that it's a pizza guy it seems.
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Brian Wells' story has been rather popular fodder for episodes of police dramas and other such shows in the past eight years. America's Most Wanted did an entire special about it, detailing everything investigators knew up to that point. The last co-conspirator was convicted last year, and the incident was detailed in Wired magazine back in January of this year.

It is possible that they didn't know, but it is highly unlikely.
 
Espy

Espy

Yeah, I think anyone who says this movie is "based off" the Brian Well's story is implying a ton of stuff that they can't prove or even know, unless I missed the filmmakers saying something like that? I've been following this movie for a bit and I haven't heard anything like this from the filmmakers. Not to mention I've never heard of Brian Well's and I'm betting there's a lot of people who haven't heard of him. Seems like a big assumption here.

Plus this movie looks freaking awesome.
 
Norris

Norris

Espy said:
Yeah, I think anyone who says this movie is "based off" the Brian Well's story is implying a ton of stuff that they can't prove or even know, unless I missed the filmmakers saying something like that? I've been following this movie for a bit and I haven't heard anything like this from the filmmakers. Not to mention I've never heard of Brian Well's and I'm betting there's a lot of people who haven't heard of him. Seems like a big assumption here.
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This is an industry where making a movie about fighting alien bugs leads to the studio buying the rights to Starship Troopers because they are kinda similar. An industry where making a movie about vaguely Asimov-ian robots leads to making it I, Robot. That a film would by total accident be rather similar to a nationally known (just because you didn't hear about it, doesn't make it obscure) case about a pizza delivery guy who is forced by some criminals into wearing a bomb set to go off at a certain time in order to rob a bank for them is kind of unbelievable. Fuck, this flick is as close to the true story as Unstoppable was to its inspiration and closer than Eight Below, both of which touted their link.

I would say that if the film makers haven't admitted to a link, it's because they know it would be incredibly bad publicity. There's no way that this movie gets through the process without someone noting the similarities. And there's no way the similarities get noted without someone making sure they can't be reasonably sued.
 
LittleSin

LittleSin

I've never heard of Brian Wells. First time I saw a story like this was on CSI: Miami.

Movie looks funny. I think you might be jumping the gun on this one?
 
Norris

Norris

LittleSin said:
I've never heard of Brian Wells. First time I saw a story like this was on CSI: Miami.

Movie looks funny. I think you might be jumping the gun on this one?
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I guess being featured in/on America's Most Wanted, Wired Magazine, and Anderson Cooper 360 (in addition to contemporary national news coverage, of course) doesn't warrant notability these days.

I'm not saying that no one did neck bombs before Brian Wells (they're popular in South America, or so I read) or that no one had ever used a "time bomb as blackmail" plot before 2003 (they did). But to make a movie in which a Pizza guy has a bomb strapped to him by some criminals who are going to use him as patsy to rob a bank for them (almost exactly what happened to Wells, he might have helped planned the robbery but they forced the live bomb on him at gunpoint) seem waaaaaaaaaaay too fucking close to be coincidence.
 
D

Disconnected

Then it's prime time for my wacky office comedy about an odd couple trying to make it or break it for the same job in NYC while a plane carrying both their parents, equally as mismatch flies above......

(i think 30mins or less looks funny and I did not hear of mr. wells before)
 
Espy

Espy

Yeah... I see what you are saying, I do, but I guess I can't find the smoking gun you seem to be able to find. Either way, it's all good, I got no problems agreeing to disagree.
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

"I've never heard of it," is the most common dismissal of everything on this forum.

It could be front page news for a week, and there will be someone here who hasn't heard about it, or will claim they haven't to maintain some weird hipster cred.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Norris said:
So, like, eight years from now it will be OK to make a wacky comedy about a mom who murders her daughter and then gets let off in a media circus trial?

In two more years it will be all right to make a wacky comedy about some Dutch guys kidnapping a blonde American girl on Spring Break?

2004 would have been the right time to make a movie about a charmingly awkward pedophile who romances a child beauty queen by breaking into her house at night and eating pineapple with her?
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Yes.
 
Baerdog

Baerdog

Norris said:
This is an industry where making a movie about fighting alien bugs leads to the studio buying the rights to Starship Troopers because they are kinda similar. An industry where making a movie about vaguely Asimov-ian robots leads to making it I, Robot. That a film would by total accident be rather similar to a nationally known (just because you didn't hear about it, doesn't make it obscure) case about a pizza delivery guy who is forced by some criminals into wearing a bomb set to go off at a certain time in order to rob a bank for them is kind of unbelievable. Fuck, this flick is as close to the true story as Unstoppable was to its inspiration and closer than Eight Below, both of which touted their link.
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Norris said:
I would say that if the film makers haven't admitted to a link, it's because they know it would be incredibly bad publicity. There's no way that this movie gets through the process without someone noting the similarities. And there's no way the similarities get noted without someone making sure they can't be reasonably sued.
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You're comparing apples to oranges here. Starship Troopers and I, Robot intellectual properties owned by other people and as such are protected by copyright. In order to make their movies without getting sued or breaking the law, studios have to get the rights to these properties. Likewise, if you are going to make a biopic you have to get the rights to use a person's likeness.

Thirty Minutes or Less is not based on another intellectual property and does not appear to be a biopic about Brian Wells so the studio doesn't have to buy any rights to the story. Might it be inspired by the real events? Maybe. Tons of screenplays are. However, as long as none of the real life names are used in the movie the studio can protect it with two simple sentences at the end of the credits: "All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental."
 
Chad Sexington

Chad Sexington

Espy said:
I've never heard of this "Titanic" so I'm really doubting that Futurama did anything of the sort. For that matter I've never heard of Futurama. Consider yourself dismissed Phil.
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You forgot the dismissive wave of your hand, slight tilt of your head away, as if disgusted, and the utterance of "Bah." Disdain is an art form.
 
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