MovieChat Forums > Sphere (1998) Discussion > Love the movie, but did Michael Criton s...

Love the movie, but did Michael Criton steal the idea?

posted 14 years ago by chrismovieman
5 replies | jump to latest

I'm not trying to take a jab at the truly talented novelist that wrote the incredible story on which the film 'Sphere' is based but I'm wondering if he got his ideas from somewhere else.

This film

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082431/

Galaxy of Terror seems like a mediocre, low budget horror flick but the synopsis says that the crew of a spaceship discover an alien pyramid that causes the crew's worst fears to physically manifest themselves. It sounds an awful lot like Sphere.

[–] TomGabel 13 years ago

FWIW, I think it's far more likely that Mr. Creighton borrowed this idea from Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, which predates Galaxy of Terror by about 20 years and is basically "Sphere in Space" to a T.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] TomGabel 13 years ago

Yeah not bashing on Michael Creighton at all - even if some ideas or a basic theme are borrowed it's a cool idea. I still haven't read Sphere, only seen the movie, so I guess one of these days I'll have to get around to that.

Solaris is excellent, though! The recent movie was less impressive, although I still haven't seen the older film adaptation so one of these days...

[–] pyjam 10 years ago

It looks more like an adaptation of Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, adapted by Tarkokski as Stalker.

See : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadside_Picnic
and search for Golden Sphere.

[–] Lamebrain17 9 years ago

You could also toss in Forbidden Planet as well.