43 replies to this topic

[James Page]

"R" (26 Jan, 2002 11:31 a.m.):
So where were the MGM legal department when "The Spy Who Shagged Me" came out?

TSWSM had very little resemblence to TSWLM film (except the title).

However, if you watch the Goldmember trailer, and read the movie synopsis, it is a very very blatant rip off.

I love "Austin Powers" and Mike Myers' work in general, but he has become very lazy this time and simply ripped Bond off. I hope MGM nails them to the wall.

[mrmoon]

Doesn't this mean the whole movie is buggered. The Bad Guy was called Goldmember right? so it's fair to assume a certain amount, however small will relate to Gold, and the fact the villain is called Goldmember. How they going to re-work this one.

[James Page]

mrmoon (26 Jan, 2002 04:22 p.m.):
Doesn't this mean the whole movie is buggered. The Bad Guy was called Goldmember right? so it's fair to assume a certain amount, however small will relate to Gold, and the fact the villain is called Goldmember. How they going to re-work this one.

MGM were doing the sensible thing, waiting for their rivals to get to the-point-of-no-return and then filing for (and getting) the cease-and-desist order. Thus killing the (potentially rival) project dead in the water.

That's corporate lawyers for you!

[Mister Asterix]

I doubt that this will do anything but slow down the PR of APIII for a little bit. The U.S. laws on copyright are pretty liberal when it comes to parody, which the Austin Powers movies obviously are.

However, I do wish Myers would set his sights on more than just the James Bond series with his titles. I mean I would like to see something like Austin Powers IV: In And Out Like Flint or The Man From O.B.H.A.V.E..

[zencat]

I really don't know which side of this fight I want to be on here. On one hand, I can understand why MGM would be upset if APIII blatantly used the Goldfirger storyline without ever consulting them...but I don't know. It's very hard to take MGM's side without seeming like an old stick-in-the-mud. Has a parody ever hurt the original film? I chock this up to another bad PR move on the part of MGM re BOND 20. I don't think they realize they're competing for a new generation of young mega-movie fans born of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, AND Austin Powers. Screw one of their pet franchisees and I think there could be a Bond backlash. I've already seen it on Ain't It Cool News in regards to this story. Bond can't afford to appear "out of it", and the face of a humorless corporate lawyer trying to take the mojo out of Austin Powers is about as "out of it" as one can get.

[Blue Eyes]

Perfect said Zencat! There's a big danger in taking AP on, and it's a danger of alienating the audience and making Bond seem 'un-cool'.

[Simon]

Mister Asterix (26 Jan, 2002 05:24 p.m.):
Austin Powers IV: In And Out Like Flint or The Man From O.B.H.A.V.E..

Excellent

[Evil Doctor Cheese]

I have to go with Zencat on this one. MGM are coming out of this as stick in the muds. Quite franckly I always thought that having AP3 come out before a James Bond film promoted the next Bond film and almost made audiences want to go and watch Bond more... esp as this one is seems like a very Bondian Powers movie. MGM are creating even more bad publicity around this one.

The Austin Powers website has been shut down (well at least been reverted back to the settings from AP2)... I think it's a shame MGM are being so boring.

BTW what is the plot synopsis of AP3? How close is it to Goldfinger?

[Blofeld's Cat]

MGM are stick-in-the-muds!

I thought imitation was the sincerest form of flattery.

Wake up and sniff the money that the youth of today are prepared to fork out to see a movie like this. They are the ones that'll also pay to see Bond. Don't alienate them, especially when, not if, they find out what's going on.

[Jim]

What is this? MGM haven't come up with a name for theirs, so you can't have a name for yours? Is parody unacceptable? I'm sure that the heirs of Mr Goldfinger the architect will have much to say about Mr Fleming's depiction of a family member being generally psychopathic.

Oh just rename the bloody thing...

In this year of Her Maj's Golden Jubilee, why not...

Austin Powers 3: On Her Majesty's Secret Cervix.

Admittedly, this is high treason and will lead to war. I can't claim it as my own. Made me laugh, though.

[Evil Doctor Cheese]

On Her Majesty's Secret Cervix! Love it!

Maybe they should rename it... Mr Shag Shag Bang Bang is a pretty easy title to revert to.

But I think this is just a storm in a tea cup... in 1999 they won the appeal on the title The Spy Who Shagged Me but the media heard nothing of it because AP movies didn't use Bond titles before 1999. But now the imitation Bond title is a stapel of the hugely popular AP movies the media are making a stink about it,

[James Page]

Jim (28 Jan, 2002 01:48 p.m.):
On Her Majesty's Secret Cervix.

LOL :-D

....I think I'll just go and change my personal email siggy

[WillieGarvin]

I agree with Mr.* on this.Myers should go after _all_ the spy films/tv show titles of the 60s and not just riff on the names of the Bond movies alone.That's not especially imaginative or clever.

And as for that argument saying imitation is the sincerest form of flattery--perhaps so,unless--as Mark Twain once added,it becomes the sincerest form of plagerism...

[General Koskov]

But now MGM are letting NLC have 'Goldmember' if they get the Die Another Day trailer on it.

Personally, I don't think MGM should be sueing people for spoofing Bond titles. Who cares? No one except a bunch of stuffy old men sitting up in the offices of MGM thinking: How can we ruin comedy once and for all?