‘Scoop’ vs. ‘A Very Royal Scandal’: 18 Twin Projects That Came Out the Same Year
Just in case you watched Prince Andrew’s 2019 Newsnight interview, saw that interview dramatized in this year’s film Scoop, and still wanted more, the Prime Video series A Very Royal Scandal is retelling the sordid tale starting on September 19.
Like Scoop, A Very Royal Scandal will show how Andrew’s attempts to explain his involvement with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein only got him further mired in controversy, leading to his decision to step back from his public duties. Only this time, it’s Michael Sheen playing the Duke of York and Ruth Wilson playing interviewer Emily Maitlis, instead of Rufus Sewell and Gillian Anderson.
And this is far from the first time that rival projects have dealt with the same subject in the same year. In fact, we have a dozen and a half examples of that phenomenon from the past 60 years…
1964: The Munsters vs. The Addams Family
Family sitcoms took a turn for the ghoulish with these two black-and-white series, the former from CBS, the latter from ABC. The Addams Family star John Astin tried to distance the two offerings in a 1965 interview with The Capital Times, per MeTV, and added, “None of us enjoy being compared with the Munsters.”
1973: Godspell vs. Jesus Christ Superstar
In both projects, a 1971 musical about the life of Jesus inspired a 1973 film of the same name. One difference between the two films, however, is that Godspell got no love from Golden Globes voters while Jesus Christ Superstar got six nominations, including one for Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical.
1989: K-9 vs. Turner & Hooch
These are just your everyday buddy cop comedies… except, of course, that in each film, the partners in crime-solving are a human-dog duo. Both films got so-so reviews, but Turner & Hooch at least got a 2021 television continuation.
1990: Parker Lewis Can’t Lose vs. Ferris Bueller
As NBC trotted out a TV adaptation of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in 1990, Fox debuted another show about a fourth-wall-breaking, class-cutting cool kid. Parker Lewis ran for three seasons; Ferris Bueller only ran for one (but did boast a young Jennifer Aniston).
1993: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine vs. Babylon 5
Both of these classics of 1990s sci-fi TV were set on wormhole-adjacent space stations serving as diplomatic outposts. “We pitched [Babylon 5] to Paramount 6–12 months before DS9 was announced,” Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski tweeted in 2018. “They put their show into high gear, spending four times what we did so they’d make it to air first.”
1996: Emma vs. Emma
Just three months after Gwyneth Paltrow played the Jane Austen character on the big screen, Kate Beckinsale played the same part on the small, via a British television film. Many reviews favored the latter, with People saying Beckinsale was “just about perfect as Austen’s ‘handsome, clever and rich’ young heroine.”
1997: Dante’s Peak vs. Volcano
Two volcanic disaster flicks exploded into theaters in 1997, with Dante’s Peak starring Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton and Volcano featuring Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the win to Dante’s Peak, saying that film had “better special effects, a more entertaining story, and a real mountain.”
1997: Kundun vs. Seven Years in Tibet
That same year also gave us two big-screen films about the 14th Dalai Lama as a young boy, both with big names attached. Kundun was directed by Martin Scorsese and got four Oscar nominations, while Seven Years in Tibet starred Brad Pitt… who got a “Most Annoying Fake Accent” nom at the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards.
1998: Antz vs. A Bug’s Life
Two animated films of 1998 zoomed in on a rogue ant who goes to extremes to save his colony and woo an ant princess. A Bug’s Life, Pixar’s second feature-length film, doubled the box office haul of its creepy-crawly competition, though, grossing $363 million worldwide.
1998: Deep Impact vs. Armageddon
1998 saw 1997’s big-screen volcanos and raised the stakes, offering two movies about comets and asteroids ending life on Earth as we know it. Of the two, astronomers said that Deep Impact was the more scientifically accurate.
2005: Medium vs. Ghost Whisperer
These rival shows — both centering on a woman solving crimes by communing with the dead — actually became network siblings in 2009 when CBS picked up Medium after its NBC cancellation. “I hope that people will be okay with two hours of female mediums and ghost activity,” Ghost Whisperer star Jennifer Love Hewitt told SFX at the time.
2006: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip vs. 30 Rock
In 2006, NBC introduced two shows set behind the scenes of SNL-like sketch-comedy shows. Studio 60 got canceled after just one season, but creator Aaron Sorkin gamely riffed on the rivalry in a subsequent 30 Rock cameo. (As Sorkin lists his TV credits, Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon suggests Studio 60, and Sorkin tells her to shut up.)
2011: No Strings Attached vs. Friends with Benefits
One is a rom-com about friends who start hooking up and then fall in love. The other is about friends who start hooking up and then fall in love. And they both got $149 million at the box office! (Fun fact: No Strings Attached started its life as a screenplay titled, you guessed it, Friends With Benefits.)
2013: Olympus Has Fallen vs. White House Down
Fictional terrorists attacked the fictional White House twice in 2013, and it was up to heroes (played by Gerard Butler and Channing Tatum, respectively) to rescue the U.S. president (played by Aaron Eckhart and Jamie Foxx, respectively). Both films got similar box office results, but Olympus has had two sequels so far.
2014: Black Sails vs. Crossbones
If you didn’t like Starz’s adventure drama about pirates of the Caribbean, you could have tuned into NBC just months later for another take. NBC’s Crossbones had John Malkovich but only lasted one season; Starz’s Black Sails had lesser-known stars but went on for four seasons.
2016: Barry vs. Southside with You
As former President Barack Obama’s time in the Oval Office wound down, two films showed scenes from his life as a young man. Barry dramatized his life as a college student at Columbia; Southside With You depicted his first date with Michelle Obama.
2022: Pinocchio vs. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Fans who wished upon a star for another Pinocchio adaptation lucked out in 2022, when two hit screens. One was a (poorly-received) live-action effort starring Tom Hanks as Geppetto and directed by Hanks’ frequent collaborator Robert Zemeckis. The other was a (well-received) stop-motion film co-written and co-directed by Guillermo del Toro.
2024: Scoop vs. A Very Royal Scandal
Though Scoop got the drop on A Very Royal Scandal in telling the tale of Prince Andrew’s disastrous Newsnight interview, the latter does have one big advantage: Emily Maitlis, the journalist who conducted that interview, is an executive producer.
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