I'm going to be in Japan when this comes out, which is kind of disappointing, since I really want to see this.

"The Happening" sounds strikingly TOO similar to "The Frightening" in the novel THE ECOMANCER wherein people mysteriously drop dead around the country during an apocalyptic event associated with the environment.

Is this a case of a hollywood bigshot ripping off a novelist?

Wow, that's a pretty strong argument considering that no other story ever has featured people all over the world dropping dead for no apparent reason.

Sorry, I'm not trolling but I don't think it's plagiarism. I think it's a pretty common motif.

In THE ECOMANCER the event known as "The Frightening" also happens on Friday the 13th.

Let's Recap:

1 The movie "The Happening" vs.
2 The novel "The Ecomancer"

1 NAME OF EVENT: "The Happening"
2 NAME OF EVENT: "The Frightening"

1 EFFECT: People all of the world mysteriously drop dead. Traffic piles up. People flee and use radios to figure out what happened. Contact is lost.

2 EFFECT: Same.

1 TIME: Movie promoted on Friday the 13th
2 TIME: "The Frightening" occurs on Friday the 13th

That's toooo many coincidences. I would have to see the movie to see the rest of the plot, but the set up, even the imagery in trailer, is exactly the same.

Wow, good point. I can't seem to find anything about the origin of the script. IMDB, Wiki, etc... I'd like to know if your right though.

Edit: Wow that's funny: If you typr "the Ecomancer the Happening" in google, your comment is the second link that comes up!

*dead

This published video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by eric3579.

Awarding rasch187 with one Power Point for fixing this video's dead embed code.