Sing Along: High Fidelity in the Media

[Meredith Quill]

Your Media Topic!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

High Fidelity film screenwriters say Hulu TV series lifted their work without attribution

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According to the writers, they chose not to watch the High Fidelity series after reading the pilot teleplay and realizing much of it was based on their work. “I was kind of stunned to find our writing in their script. Like, a lot of it,” DeVincentis said. “Just lifted from the screenplay of the movie and dropped down into the TV show. I’d never seen anything like it.”

Hulu’s show is credited as an adaptation of Hornby’s book, not the 2000 film, so the writing credits mainly went to series co-creators Sarah Kucserka and Veronica West. But while Pink applauded the way the show “embraced our vision and took it further in some ways and spun it in other ways,” he added that, “The problem is that it’s a remake of our movie. It’s not not a remake. You can’t look at the TV show and look at our movie and think that the TV show was not a remake. I don’t know how with an honest face you could make that determination.”

In fact, said DeVincentis, “…There were entire scenes, concepts, shots, and dialogue lifted directly from the movie — again not from the book — without any credit or attribution. Like, even an Easter egg in-joke I laid in to a record store scene for a friend — the meaning of which the TV writers could never know — was simply lifted and dropped into their teleplay with the rest of it.”

Pink and DeVincentis argued that the show features numerous moments from “our material and not from the book,” such as characters turning to the camera “at the exact moment” as they do in the movie. Still, Pink emphasized that while he’s “flattered by their desire to embrace our work” and doesn’t “even necessarily blame them,” it’s a matter of principle:

“They could’ve ripped us off all they want; we don’t own the material. Disney owns the material. We don’t own the book; Nick Hornby wrote the book. Not only did we not write the underlining material, we don’t own the material we wrote. So it’s only about whether or not we would be afforded credit for our work inside all of that. And once again it will never be known, but I would’ve like to have made an argument for that.”

 

[akiss]

I... really do not agree with the above. The lines that are the same are lines from the book. I love the film and I  didn't find that much similarities. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

11 hours ago, akiss said:

I... really do not agree with the above. The lines that are the same are lines from the book. I love the film and I  didn't find that much similarities. 

I liked the movie and I've seen it several times, but I'm much more familiar with the book which I've read countless times over the years. There were a lot of lines in the show that I recognized from the book but the few references to the movie that I saw on the show (like Rob wearing the same Dickies shirt) were visual and usually when people do that, it's referred to as an homage.

The biggest thing I remember from the movie that was also used in the show but was not in the book was the plot about the local kids who shoplifted at the record shop and ended up having a decent band.

To be honest, I only watched each episode once and it's been a few years since the last time I saw the movie, so it's possible that there are similarities between the two that I just didn't pick up on, but most of the things I recognized while watching the show were from the book.

[JZL]

I've watched the series twice now and in between re-watched the movie, which I had not seen for quite a few years.  I was actually surprised at the similarities.  I have never read the book.  Perhaps soon. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

10 hours ago, JZL said:

I've watched the series twice now and in between re-watched the movie, which I had not seen for quite a few years.  I was actually surprised at the similarities.  I have never read the book.  Perhaps soon. 

The majority of stuff that's in the movie is from the book. They made a few changes with song/music/movie references, the setting (Chicago instead of London), and when events took place (the movie was slightly more current than the book). The biggest change was adding the plot with the shoplifting kids. I'd say 90% of the dialogue in the movie is lifted straight from the book.

[BetterButter]

'High Fidelity' Canceled at Hulu

[akiss]

Awwww, so sad!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I'm disappointed but not surprised. I wonder how much of this decision was related to uncertainty due to COVID vs the ratings.

[Ultrahyenagirl]

That's a shame! I admittedly wasn't the biggest fan of the show, namely because I really didn't like Rob as a character. Zoe Kravitz is super talented though, and I was curious to see where they'd take things in season 2. 

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I'm disappointed but not surprised. I wonder how much of this decision was related to uncertainty due to COVID vs the ratings.

I could be off base here, but I also wonder if licensing had something to do with it. Licensing all of that music can't have been cheap. It seems like this may have been one of those shows where it needed not just decent, but decidedly above-average viewership numbers in order to justify its continued existence. 

[JZL]

Awww shucks, this was one of my favorite new shows.

IMHO the scene with Rob and Debbie Harry is a TV classic.

It was nice to see Da'Vine Joy Randolph again.  She had been in People of Earth, another fave.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Guild of Music Supervisors award!

Best Music Supervision – Television Comedy or Musical 

Manish Raval, Alison Rosenfeld, Tom Wolfe –” High Fidelity “– Season 1