DVD Artwork: Influence or Ripoff?

This weekend, my wife and I stopped off at the video store to rent a few DVDs. (We never get out of there with less than four.) On the "New Releases" shelf, I noted the Mira Sorvino TV film Covert One: The Hades Factor. Something about the cover immediately struck me as familiar, so I decided to do some checking. I wondered if I had already seen the movie. As I pondered it, I kept thinking of The Bourne Identity. But that was Matt Damon, not Stephen Dorff. Then it hit me. It wasn't the movie that sounded familiar, it was the artwork. I've always been a fan of movie poster artwork and pay more attention to them than most people.

When compared side-by-side, there's no doubt to me that the artwork for the new DVD was heavily influenced by the poster for The Bourne Identity. They swapped the colors in the background, but everything else is similar: the principle actor being trailed by a woman, artwork along the right side depicting action and romance, even the angle of Dorff's left arm and the gun in the right hand. It's not so much "influenced" as it is a complete ripoff.

Too Little, Too Late

From the "this is, like, so six years ago" file:

"Original Charlie's Angels star Kate Jackson has blasted the film remake of the series which rocketed her to fame, insisting the movie simply seemed like a "competition" between the sexy stars. Jackson... was disappointed in the 2000 film Charlie's Angels - because she could tell the stars Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore were not united." -- World Entertainment News Network

Later, Ms. Jackson will be speaking out on the influence of rap music and video games on our nation's youth.