10 Movie "Ripoffs" That Actually Weren't
3. Dead Man on Campus
In the case of 1998's black comedy Dead Man on Campus, the suspicion over its origins is understandable given the utterly unhinged specificity of its premise.
The movie revolves around two failing college students (Tom Everett Scott and Mark-Paul Gosselaar) who attempt to find a depressed roommate and drive him to killing himself, as will cause them both to automatically receive A grades.
This premise is extraordinary similar to that of The Curve, where two students (Matthew Lillard and Michael Vartan) plot to kill their roommate and stage it to look like a suicide, in turn getting an automatic 4.0 GPA.
The Curve premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1998, while Dead Man on Campus didn't release until that August.
But the truth of it is that Dead Man on Campus wrapped shooting three months before The Curve even started, and while The Curve was rushed through production to meet its Sundance premiere just five months later, Dead Man on Campus had a decidedly more laid-back post-production schedule.
It's also entirely possible that Paramount delayed Dead Man on Campus' release in order to distance itself from The Curve. Ultimately both films were critical and commercial duds, so it was all for nought anyway.