Trivia / Two Distant Strangers

• Overshadowed by Controversy: As several people noticed, the basic premise of 'Groundhog Day with a black protagonist who keeps getting shot by the same police officer' was done in 2016 in 'Groundhog Day for a Black Man.' The director of that prior film, Cynthia Kao, implied that 'Two Distant Strangers' used her idea, noting that one of 'Two Distant Strangers'' producers is the company NowThis, which had previously recommended and boosted 'Groundhog Day for a Black Man' and thus was provably aware of Kao's film. This started an online flame war, with some people blasting the 'Two Distant Strangers' crew for stealing Kao's idea, while others argued either that Kao couldn't prove the theft or that Kao, who is Asian, had no right to make a movie about black trauma in the first place.
  • The same idea (of a black man stuck in a "Groundhog Day" Loop and being repeatedly killed by a policeman) was also used in an episode of Jordan Peele's The Twilight Zone (2019) , although in that case the director of 'Two Distant Strangers' actually talked to Peele and made sure the new film was different enough to not be a ripoff. However, there's no indication that happened with 'Groundhog Day for a Black Man,' hence the flame war.