MovieChat Forums > Chicken Run (2000) Discussion > Not to belabour this or anything but...

Not to belabour this or anything but...

posted 16 years ago by Voland-4
2 replies | jump to latest

Chicken Run was ripped off from a short story written in the mid 90s by a (fairly hip) Russian author.

http://pelevin.nov.ru/pov/en-hermit/1.html

I looked at my IMDB history recently and was sad to discover no one gives a flying f-youknowhat when I posted it years ago. I am posting it again now. It made me sad because I know America will choke on itself and I believe that any little bit of effort to smash up the poor country's smugness and isolation must be of world-altering importance. It makes me sad to have to think about that and do that kind of stuff. Whatever - the link was dead anyway...

[–] sneppo 15 years ago

Welcome to Hollywood! :)

[–] puirt-a-beul 9 years ago

It may be that people didn't agree with you about it being a "rip off". I don't, myself.

Thank you for the link. It was a very interesting read -- though quite bleak and oh-so-Russian! -- but I think the story is a response to the gulag culture of Soviet Rusiia, while the film is a loving paean to WWII POW films in general, and Great Escape in particular. They happen to have a similar starting point, in what are essentially POW camps, and the plot progression from there is along understandably similar lines. But I don't see anything to suggest that the writers of Chicken Run even knew about the story.

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.