When Stories Go Viral: Hollywood's Frivolous Feast of Reused IP

From Podcasts to Previews: A Hollywood Circus

Walking into the MGM+ limited anthology series American Hostage with exec producer and star Jon Hamm at its Toronto festival premiere, I couldn't help but feel like I was watching a déjà vu performance. The same story, the same premise, just told in different mediums. Last year, Gus Van Sant's thriller Dead Man's Wire, about the same 1977 Indianapolis hostage crisis, took center stage at the same festival. And then there was the 2022 podcast featuring Jon Hamm, and a 2018 documentary that had consultants on Wire.

"Welcome to a new level of déjà view," I think to myself, as I watch the same story told in different forms across different platforms. What we're witnessing is not just a trend, but an evolution — one that might be more concerning than it appears.

This isn't just about the repetition of ideas; it's about how our consumption habits have shifted, with platforms like Spotify, Netflix, and YouTube becoming the new battleground for narrative dominance. In this digital landscape, a single story can become a franchise across multiple genres, mediums, and timeframes. The result? An increasingly fragmented but also saturated marketplace where originality often takes a backseat to reclamation.

Is It Cannibalism or Collaboration?

So, how do we navigate this paradox? Do similar projects boost audiences or cannibalize them? As it turns out, the answer is as nuanced as the content itself. The true crime genre has seen a significant uptick in cross-platform consumption — according to Edison Research, 61% of true crime podcast listeners are also watching true crime TV shows or movies, and half of them are on YouTube too.

This raises a fascinating question: What's the real appeal here? Is it that these stories tap into our collective unconscious, or is it that we've become so saturated with content that we're simply chasing after more of the same?

"It's complicated," jokes one Hollywood agent. "They're running out of true crimes."

Amen to that. It's as if Hollywood has discovered that audiences crave repetition — not just because they enjoy it, but because they feel safe with it. In a world where everything can go viral overnight, reusing IP is the equivalent of having a security blanket. And while this may provide comfort, it also risks creating a content dead zone.

Expanding Universes or Exploiting Them?

Take, for instance, Netflix's four-part docuseries Dynasty: The Murdochs. It wasn't just a standalone piece of content — it was an expansion into the Murdoch family saga. And when they announced their pickup of Danny Boyle's biopic Ink, based on James Graham's play, it made perfect sense. The series had already primed audiences for deeper dives into the Murdochs' world.

Similarly, the Spider-Man franchise demonstrated that when you have a strong foundation, multiple platforms can amplify each other. Just before its July 31 debut, there were 26 million to 32 million hours of Spider-Man content watched in a week across major platforms, according to Showlabs from Ampere/PlumResearch. Then, in the week after the film's debut, viewership tripled to 98 million.

It's clear that expansion works when it adds layers — not just repetition. But what happens when we're dealing with content that has already been explored? Consider Apple Original Films' Tenzing, a shot-on-location drama about Mount Everest, and National Geographic Documentary Films' Everest: The Other Side, both set for release in October 2026. They're both tackling the same mountain, but they're not competing — they're trying to tell the same story from different angles.

The Legalities of Repetition

Legal expert Elsa Ramo, who represents Boardwalk Pictures at TIFF, emphasizes the importance of securing rights early. "Consumers now want a life story as a feature, a doc series, a scripted TV show and short-form content. Nobody is thinking that things are just a one-off," she notes.

And it's true — we're not just watching stories anymore; we're living them across multiple formats. The idea of a single IP being owned exclusively by one platform or medium is quickly becoming obsolete. This is good news for producers and creators, but bad news for the audience who might feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of content.

Podcasts and the Reboot Culture

The podcast world has been particularly fertile ground for IP reinvention. When we look at projects like American Hostage, we see how a single concept can be transformed across mediums, each with its own audience. Writer Eileen Myers, an executive producer alongside Shawn Ryan and podcast/series producers Shawn Christensen and Gabriel Mason, has more in mind for the franchise: a spoken word album and a Broadway musical coming soon!

This is where it gets interesting — the idea of repurposing content isn't just about marketing; it's about creating immersive worlds. But as we've seen with American Hostage, the line between expansion and exploitation becomes blurred.

What's Next for Content Consumption?

Industry analysts like Zak Shaik from Ampere Analysis note that while some projects might compete, most tend to be additive rather than subtractive. "The podcast might have been the first point of entry for that story, and then there's the documentary, then the dramatic series," he explains. "Those formats tend to get larger and larger."

Still, as we navigate this new frontier of storytelling, it's crucial to ask ourselves: Are we consuming content because we love it, or are we just following trends?

Ultimately, Hollywood's love affair with repetition might be more than a marketing strategy — it could be an existential move toward ensuring longevity. But let's not forget the audience at the heart of it all. If we keep feeding the beast with rehashed stories, what happens to the originality that once defined entertainment?

Perhaps the real question isn't whether similar projects hurt business — but rather, are we becoming so comfortable with repetition that we've lost sight of what makes storytelling compelling in the first place?