Crossover Concepts in Film

This has always been one of my favorite topics.
It's based upon what is called the "Wold Newton" concept in literature made popular by science-fiction author Philip Jose Farmer.

Here's a link that explains it...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wold_Newton_family

The concept is very limited in the realm of movies due to copyrights and such, but once in a while certain films find their way around that.

Some I know of:

1. Murder by Death (1976) - here Neil Simon made parodies of famous detectives so he could assemble them altogether in a "And Then There Were None" or "Ten Little Indians" murder-mystery style farce.

2. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) - Disney, Warner Brothers and several other production companies submitted their famous animated characters to mix it up with live action in a parody of classic detective fiction.

3. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) - arguably the film does not compare to the comics it was based on, but creator Alan Moore utilized Victorian era characters (all public domain) to form a team. The film version altered & added some characters (and Moore refused to be credited), but the concept of unrelated literary characters working together remained.

Now... I'd like to know if anyone knows of similar films that utilize the concept.
Or... would you like to pitch a film utilizing the concept?

How about Murder Can Hurt You! (1980)? It was a TV movie similar to Murder By Death, but it spoofed the TV detectives instead of the movie detectives.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081201/reference


This is only part 1, but you can easily find the rest of the movie from this link:

Going back a bit further...

Universal Studios gained rights to some famous, unrelated, literary monsters (Dracula, Frankenstein, etc.) and soon had a series of hit monster movies. Eventually, they began to have the monsters meet, such as in Frankenstein meets the Wolfman (1943).
They even had their universe of monsters meet other stars: Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), and the comic duo would go on to meet a roster of the Universal monsters.

The Universal Monsters crossovers would be given homage with such films as:
Mad Monster Party (1967)
The Monster Squad (1987)
Van Helsing (2004)
Hotel Transylvania I & II (2012 & 2015)

Ironically, two (or is it three?) of the Universal Monsters (Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde and the Invisible Man) would show up as members of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen!

Thanks, GB!
I forgot about this one (probably because I never saw it!) I think you made me aware of it the last time we discussed this topic, which was a while back. For some reason, I don't think you could watch the whole thing on YouTube back then (only clips). Now I'll have to check it out!

Trivia - since that movie starts with a narration by Don Adams...
Don Adams said he based the voice of his character Maxwell Smart on that of actor William Powell when Powell played his character of retired detective Nick Charles. (In Murder by Death, the characters of Nick & Nora Charles were given the names "Nick & Nora Charleston" and were played by David Niven & Maggie Smith).

Does it have to be a lot of characters that crossover, or can it be only one or two?

How about cartoons like when Scooby-Doo meets Batman, the Harlem Globetrotters, etc.?

Hey, you can mention anything you want.

With TV, it gets pretty expansive as crossovers became pretty popular (remember how on Green Acres & Petticoat Junction, they both used Mr. Drucker's general store which was somewhere in the middle? Drucker's was like some "nexus of realities"! The Beverly Hillbillies belonged to that continuity as well.)

And if we get into other media... well... did you know there were a few X-Men meet Star Trek comic books? How disparate are those two groups?

I know the comic books love doing crossovers, but I haven't read he X-Men meet Star Trek comic books. I'll have to look for those at the next convention.

It was back in 1996. They did a crossover with the original crew, and then another with the Next Generation. I only saw the original. As unworkable as it sounds, I kind of remember it being pretty good.

I remember a scene where nurse chapel calls to "Dr. McCoy" and both ship's Doctor Leonard McCoy and Dr. Hank McCoy (the Beast) turn to her and go "What?"

Geez! 1996? Can the Star Trek / X-Men comic really have happened 20 YEARS AGO?
Like, when I bought it, a child being born at the same time is now a college-age adult?
Seriously, it seems like about 6 years ago to me. I think I'm beginning to live my life in dog years (or something like that).

Maybe someone can help me out here... was there a crossover movie with all the "slashers"? (I never followed that horror genre too closely, so I'm not sure...)

Re: Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, Leather-Face, etc.?
Or am I thinking of one of those "Scary Movie" type parody films?

I know there was a Freddy vs. Jason movie at least - so that right there is another example of the Wold Newton concept.

Also: the Alien vs. Predator films!

I came up with another one - kind of.
(And yes, I realize I'm talking to myself here, but that's okay, I do that sometimes when I'm off-line too. I guess the title of the thread isn't too attractive since most people don't even know what it is!)

Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) - this fun DreamWorks animated film utilized the crossover in a similar way as Murder by Death - it altered the names of the characters to avoid infringements. The "Monsters" of the title were all based on horror movies of the 1950's this time...

Ginormica = Attack of the 50 foot Woman (1958)
B.O.B. (Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate) = The Blob (1958)
Dr. Cockroach = The Fly (1958)
The Missing Link = The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Insectosaurus = Godzilla (1954) / Mothra (1961)

This movie is allegedly rife with other references to other movies as well.

I thought I was the only one who liked, (or maybe even saw), Monsters vs. Aliens. I knew that the characters were all based on actual horror characters, but not being a fan of the genre, I probably missed most of the references.

Yeah, it was a pretty good movie. It had some decent laughs too. Knowing that it was an homage to 50's "B" horror & sci-fi movies made it even better. I think anyone who liked The Incredibles would probably also enjoy Monsters vs. Aliens.

Here's a question:
I've never seen the Lego Movie (2014), but I understand it has a diversity of characters (mostly in Lego form?).
So, is it a shared universe / crossover concept movie where characters from different owners intermingle or are all the properties owned by Warner?
(I ask that because I know it has Superman, Batman & Wonder Woman in it and they're all from DC comics which is owned by Warner Brothers.)

Another question - is this "shared universes" concept applicable when fictional characters interact with real life / historical figures?

You decide! (And please, keep your responses to a minimum... I can hardly keep up with them all.)

In The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976) Detective Sherlock Holmes teams up with Sigmund Freud.
In Murder by Decree (1977) Sherlock Holmes investigates Jack-the-Ripper.

I was going to include Time After Time (1979) but when I looked it up I found that it is H.G. Wells himself who travels through time to pursue Jack-the-Ripper and not his Time-Traveler character from The Time Machine. So Wells and Jack-the-Ripper were both real life / historical figures (but had no connection in real life).

While both franchises have fallen off cinematically after their first few outings, I would love to see a Robocop vs Terminator crossover. Robocop and the first two Terminators are three of my favorite movies, and they did see a crossover event in comic form. With both franchises not really catching any fire recently (with the debacle of Terminator Genysis and the underwhelming Robocop remake), I'd just like to see these two franchises take a shot and see what they could do together.

What about cartoon/movie crossovers, like when Humphrey Bogart keeps popping up in that Bugs Bunny cartoon?

That would be awesome! It seems like they are destined to meet & do battle at some point. (I saw the comics years back.)
Unfortunately, both Ahnold and Peter Weller are too old to reprise their roles.

I think at this point it could be well suited for an animated feature or maybe even a mini-series with Weller and Arnold voicing over.

Good idea. It would be well suited to CGI since both characters have had their various CGI moments already. (Although there was something kinda charming and cool with the Harryhausen-style stop motion animation used in some parts of the original Robocop!)

P.S. Just as a continuation of the thread - I viewed most of The Lego Movie the other night and I'd say it qualifies. I'm not sure if all the characters are Warner Bros.' properties or not, but there were enough established characters from different universes to qualify... especially at the gathering of Master Builders. They had characters from:
DC Comics
Lord of the Rings
Harry Potter
Star Wars
The Simpsons
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles