I was just looking on IMDB and saw the trailer listed for the movie Seventh Son. I originally wondered if this movie is in anyway connect to the book by Orson Scott Card of the same name. Looking through what is listed on IMDB, I don't see any credit given to Card, so now I'm curious. The plot seems at least vaguely the same: Seventh son of the seventh son; 1800's setting; battling evil with magic. I don't know if there are further plot similarities, but this seems a little too obvious to be missed. What's going on here?


No relationship to the book; it's an adaptation of a different book series (The Wardstone Chronicles):


However, this doesn't mean that this other book isn't related to Card's book, somehow. That's a different discussion, though.

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  • Fair enough. I am a little disappointed and am wondering if this is something Card is aware of (copyright infringement kind of thing), but as you said, that's a different discussion ... – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Jul 15 '13 at 19:08
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    It's a great question. Of course, titles themselves are not copyrightable, but if the content is similar then that could be. Having worked at a publisher for a while, and negotiating some film rights, my guess is that the filmmakers would have erred on the side of caution and secured the rights to Card's books as well, just so they couldn't be sued after the fact. – jlmcdonald Jul 15 '13 at 19:21
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    Of course, the idea of seventh sons is well known in folklore and much older than both works en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventh_son_of_a_seventh_son – djmadscribbler Jul 15 '13 at 19:31
  • @djmadscribbler ... I was thinking that as well. I guess being a fan of Card's work, it WOULD have been related. Wishful thinking! – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Jul 16 '13 at 10:24

7th son of a 7th son is old folklore, I'm pretty confident both authors knew that and drew on the folklore concept independently.

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I rented the movie based on reading Card's book as a child over 20 years ago thinking they were connected, I was wrong and had wishful thinking. I don't think it's copyright infringement, but I also believe the advertisements crew took advantage of the population's interest in the much wider read book by Orson Scott card. Look at how many awards Card's book won in the series recieved around 1988. Is that not a target age for marketers of a product to be sold under the assumption that they are getting something associated to Card's work?

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It's based on the books in Joseph Delaney's book last apprentice series

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    Can you elaborate why you think so and does you have source for your claim. – Ankit Sharma Mar 5 '15 at 5:30

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