When you hear a movie title like The Hills Have Thighs, two immediate possibilities come to mind about what kind of film you’re about to see: either a comedy or porn.
A Columbia filmmaker, who’s also a well-known attorney and former state lawmaker, made a film with such a title, and his was a comedy about a hillbilly kidnapping in Appalachia. Unfortunately, there is also a soft-core porn film with the same title made by someone else and completely unconnected to the comedic film.
The title the two films share is an obvious play on words of the title from a series of horror movies, The Hills Have Eyes, which followed a family who becomes the target of a group of mutants in the desert after their car breaks down.
But the fact that there are two radically different films with the same title has caused a nightmare for the filmmaker of the comedy, resulting in a lawsuit against HBO and Showtime.
The Charlotte Observer reports that the filmmaker was surprised to see a description of his film, complete with the names of his actors, in the TV listings for the Movie Channel, which is owned by Showtime. He hadn’t heard about that network getting the rights to air the movie, but because he had recently hired a talent agent who he thought might have worked out the deal, he called up his cast members and his family to let them know that his movie was about to reach a national audience.
But when the movie began, his phone started ringing off the hook after people saw something totally unexpected!  He says what actually played, despite his movie’s description, was the soft-core porn flick instead.
And if that evening wasn’t enough of a nightmare, he says, the same thing happened a few weeks later on Cinemax (which is owned by HBO).
Can you imagine being the filmmaker and seeing your film, with your cast and plotline described, calling those close to you to get them to tune in, only to realize you’ve invited them to see a skin flick instead?
If someone put something like this into a film script, no one would believe it could actually happen!
