| 1 | !!Films with pages |
| 2 | [[index]] |
| 3 | * ''WhatCouldHaveBeen/SonicTheHedgehog'' includes information about ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020''. |
| 4 | * ''WhatCouldHaveBeen/{{Pokemon}}'' includes information on the live-action ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' movies. |
| 5 | [[/index]] |
| 6 | |
| 7 | !!Examples without pages |
| 8 | * ''Film/TheAddamsFamily'': |
| 9 | ** Ophelia was going to have a brief scene at some point. |
| 10 | ** Creator/TimBurton was slated to direct before he bailed due to conflicts with ''Film/BatmanReturns''. |
| 11 | ** Music/{{Cher}} strongly lobbied for the role of Morticia, but was ultimately turned down. The studio almost cast Creator/KimBasinger as the role until she left to work on ''Film/CoolWorld''. |
| 12 | ** There are some accounts that claim Creator/OrionPictures executives wanted Creator/AnthonyHopkins to play Uncle Fester, instead of Creator/ChristopherLloyd in the finished product, but Hopkins declined and wanted to work on another Orion project. What was that project? Just something [[Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs about a deranged psychiatrist and cannibal]]. This was before Orion had to bail on ''Addams'' and ship it to Paramount due to the studio's then-ongoing financial meltdown. |
| 13 | ** In a 2012 interview with ''Vulture'', Creator/BarrySonnenfeld stated that his original vision for the film revealed that [[spoiler:Gordon Craven ''wasn't'' supposed to have been Fester all along, [[http://www.vulture.com/2012/04/barry-sonnenfeld--men-in-black-3.html but still an imposter]], though the family would've accepted him as Fester anyway, as, in Sonnenfeld's words, "...family wasn't about blood, it was about love."]] The main cast, especially Creator/AnjelicaHuston and Creator/RaulJulia; (who played Morticia and Gomez, respectively), rebelled against the idea (though weirdly, Christopher Lloyd was neutral about it), and in the end, [[WagTheDirector the cast chose ten-year-old]] Creator/ChristinaRicci to convince Sonnenfeld to change the ending. |
| 14 | ** The 'Mamushka' dance sequence was originally intended to be much longer, but complaints from test audiences over its length led to it getting trimmed down. |
| 15 | ** When the sequel ''Addams Family Values'' received a more positive reaction compared to the first film despite vastly under-performing at the box office, Paramount wanted to produce a third movie, thus making the series a trilogy. The third film was shelved when Raúl Juliá's health went into decline, and it eventually died with him since no one could match his spot-on portrayal of Gomez. |
| 16 | * ''Film/AmericanSniper'' originally had more details regarding the enemy sniper in the film, but it was scrapped due to budget concerns. |
| 17 | * ''Film/{{Arrival}}'': The aliens were originally going to resemble enormous floating blue flowers. |
| 18 | * ''Film/{{Barbarella}}'': |
| 19 | ** Creator/BrigitteBardot and Creator/SophiaLoren turned down the title role. |
| 20 | ** Creator/IanMcKellen auditioned for an unknown part. |
| 21 | * ''Film/BattleRoyale'' initially had planned for the role of Yoshitoki Kuninobu to be played by Music/{{Kyo}} from Japanese visual-kei-cum-avant-garde-metal band Music/DirEnGrey, but the role ultimately went to Yukihiro Kotani after the band's management forbade Kyo from accepting the role. |
| 22 | * ''Film/BenHur1959'': Creator/KirkDouglas was offered the role of antagonist Messala, but he turned it down, not wanting to play a "second-rate baddie". He wanted to play Ben, but that role was already promised to Creator/CharltonHeston. The role of Messala went to Creator/StephenBoyd, who won the Best Supporing Actor Oscar for his performance. Douglas ended up [[StartMyOwn making "his own"]] ''Ben Hur''; partnering with Creator/StanleyKubrick to make ''Film/{{Spartacus}}''. |
| 23 | * ''Film/TheBlueLagoon1949'': |
| 24 | ** Creator/RamonNovarro and Creator/LouiseBrooks were to be the cousins in the original casting plans, according to producer Herbert Wilcox's 1929 outline. |
| 25 | ** When Creator/SidneyGilliatAndFrankLaunder took over the project in 1938, the lead roles were offered to Creator/MargaretLockwood and Creator/MichaelRedgrave. |
| 26 | ** When the project was restarted in late 1944, the female lead was given to Creator/ShirleyTemple. It was only after the first screening of ''Film/{{Great Expectations|1946}}'' when J. Arthur Rank suggested Creator/JeanSimmons as Emmeline to Gilliat and Launder. |
| 27 | * ''Film/TheBlueLagoon1980'': |
| 28 | ** Music/CliffRichard and Creator/HayleyMills were envisioned as the cousins after producer Walter Mirisch acquired the rights in the 1960s. |
| 29 | ** When producer Ray Stark and Creator/ColumbiaPictures took over the rights from Mirisch in the early 1970s, the cousins were to be played by Creator/KurtRussell and Creator/SusanDey. Creator/LindaHayden was also considered for Emmeline. |
| 30 | ** The role of Emmeline was offered to Melissa Sue Anderson (Mary Ingalls from ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie''). She was looking to break free of her ''Little House'' goody-goody image, but was put off by the amount of nudity the role demanded, so passed. She did soon get her "grittier" role via ''Film/HappyBirthdayToMe.'' |
| 31 | * The Creator/{{Showtime}} television film ''Film/BodyBags'' was originally intended to serve as a PilotMovie for a ''Body Bags'' television series that would've served as competition for ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt''. The final film instead became a standalone horror anthology because Showtime changed their minds about making it a television show once filming began. |
| 32 | * ''Film/ButchCassidyAndTheSundanceKid'': Creator/{{Steve McQueen|actor}} and Creator/WarrenBeatty were both offered the role of Sundance. Beatty turned it down, feeling it was too similar to ''Film/BonnieAndClyde''. [=McQueen=] walked away because he refused to accept second billing to Creator/PaulNewman. |
| 33 | * ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'' was going to have a 1996 film adaptation titled ''Planet'', revised as ''Planet'' or ''Dark Planet''. There was also going to be a 2008 ''Captain Planet'' film produced by Warner Bros. |
| 34 | ** 20 years after the show was canceled, the live-action film may be going back into production. The rights are being picked up by Creator/{{Paramount}} from Turner/Warner Bros., and their choice of producer? None other than noted environmentalist Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio. [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/captain-planet-movie-leonardo-dicaprio-938852 Really]]. |
| 35 | * Creator/CecilBDeMille's 1949 smash hit ''Film/{{Samson and Delilah|1949}}'' was originally meant to star Creator/BurtLancaster as Samson, but he declined due to a bad back. [=DeMille=] then tried to get a young unknown bodybuilder named Steve Reeves picked up for the role of Samson and came very close to getting him, but both [=DeMille=] and the studio were afraid that Reeves was "too muscular" to be attractive to mainstream audiences and begged him to lose weight, assuring him that he would still look as muscular on film as he did in any of his bodybuilding photos due to the old "camera adds ten pounds" thinking (keep in mind that this was back when most people thought smoking was healthier than exercise). Reeves ultimately rebelled and Victor Mature was cast as Samson, whom [=DeMille=] grew to dislike because Mature was ultimately found not to be the tough guy he played in the movies. Roughly a decade later Reeves found fame in the B-movie circuit with his portrayal of Film/{{Hercules|1958}} in the Italian sword and sandal genre. |
| 36 | * Creator/StanleyKubrick's ''Film/AIArtificialIntelligence''. Kubrick actually wanted Spielberg to direct the film. Ironically, both directors envied each other's film styles. Kubrick tried to emulate Spielberg's style while working on ''AI'' (hence why certain elements in it seem unusual for a Kubrick film), only for Spielberg to emulate Kubrick's style when finishing the film after Kubrick's death. One wonders what the film would've been like if Kubrick hadn't tried to emulate Spielberg, or if Spielberg accepted Kubrick's offer to direct. |
| 37 | * Creator/SergioLeone had several unmade films: |
| 38 | ** ''A Place Only Mary Knows'': An "Americanized" western co-written with Luca Morsella, and Fabio Toncelli and speculated to be his last western, it would have starred Creator/RichardGere and Creator/MickeyRourke. Set during the height of the American Civil War, the story focused on a Union drafter, Mike Kutcher from Georgia, whose job is to enroll men into the Union army. The other is Richard Burns, a Southern shady businessman transplanted to the North after a successful heist with his ex-lover and partner, Mary. Searching for the buried treasure left behind in an unmarked grave outside Atlanta in “A Place Only Mary Knows”. Joined by a freed slave and an Italian immigrant, Francesco, who arrives via the port of Boston, they try desperately to avoid the battles of the ongoing war between the states. |
| 39 | ** A contemporary adaptation of ''Literature/DonQuixote'' starring Creator/ClintEastwood and Creator/EliWallach. He had discussed doing the project throughout the 1960s-1970s, and he started seriously considering it towards the end of his life. |
| 40 | ** He was an avid fan of Margaret Mitchell's novel ''Literature/GoneWithTheWind'' and [[Film/GoneWithTheWind the 1939 film adaptation]]. His relatives and close friends stated that he talked about filming a remake that was closer to the original novel, but it never advanced beyond discussions to any serious form of production. |
| 41 | ** He was a fan of Louis-Ferdinand Céline's novel ''Literature/JourneyToTheEndOfTheNight'' and was considering a film adaptation in the late 1960s; he incorporated elements of the story into ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'' and ''Film/AFistfulOfDynamite'' but his idea of adapting the novel itself never got past the planning stages. |
| 42 | ** He started writing a screenplay based on ''ComicStrip/ThePhantom'', and scouted locations for the project. Despite this, he never got to make a movie based on the comic book hero. He declared he would have liked to follow this with a movie based on another Creator/LeeFalk-created character, ''ComicStrip/MandrakeTheMagician''. |
| 43 | ** ''Leningrad: The 900 Days'': A war epic based on Harrison Salisbury's non-fiction book ''The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad''. The film would have opened InMediasRes as the camera goes from focusing on a Russian hiding from the Nazis' artillery fire to panning hundreds of feet away to show the German Panzer divisions approaching the walls of the city. The plot was to focus on an American photographer on assignment (whom Leone wanted to be played by Creator/RobertDeNiro) becoming trapped in Russia as the German Luftwaffe begin to bombard the city. Throughout the course of the film, he becomes romantically involved with a Russian woman, whom he later impregnates, as they attempt to survive the prolonged siege and the secret police, because relationships with foreigners are forbidden. According to Leone, "In the end, the cameraman dies on the day of the liberation of the city, when he is currently filming the surrender of the Germans. And the girl is aware of his death by chance seeing a movie news: the camera sees it explode under a shell .... "\ |
| 44 | By 1989, Leone set the film's budget at $100 million, and had secured half of that amount in financing from independent backers from the Soviet Union. He had convinced Music/EnnioMorricone to compose the film score, and Tonino Delli Colli was tapped to be the cinematographer. Shooting was scheduled to begin sometime in 1990. The project was cancelled when Leone died two days before he was to officially sign on for the film. Alex Cox offered to replace Leone as director, but was unable to secure the remaining $50 million required to produce the film. |
| 45 | * ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'' was originally a very serious horror film titled ''The Maitlands'' with Beetlejuice himself as a shapeshifting reptilian winged monster who transformed into a small Middle Eastern man. That all changed once Creator/TimBurton and Creator/MichaelKeaton came along. It was still a horror film, but now it had elements of BlackComedy in it. |
| 46 | * Before ''Film/DungeonsAndDragons2000'', Gary Gygax attempted to pitch a ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' movie. Lorraine Williams had also planned on creating a ''Dungeons & Dragons'' movie. |
| 47 | * ''Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run'' was going to be a movie franchise based on the game series starring Wrestling/DwayneJohnson. Thanks to DevelopmentHell the movie died though a Video Game tie-in starring Johnson did not and was released without the movie. |
| 48 | * Creator/SalvadorDali was a big fan of the Creator/MarxBrothers, and was particularly fascinated with Harpo for his surrealist charms. After contacting the Bros., Dalí started making plans for a surrealist film starring them, with a big focus on Harpo, ''Giraffes on Horseback Salda''. The film would have taken place at a dinner party with enormous giraffe lanterns looming overhead. It obviously never got made. That doesn't just sound like a good and possibly insane film. That sounds like the greatest film ever made. |
| 49 | * Years prior to her debut in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, there was a solo ComicBook/BlackWidow film that almost happened. A script was written up by Creator/DavidHayter before the failures of ''Film/Catwoman2004'' and ''Film/{{Elektra}}'' led [[GenreKiller the executives to conclude that there wasn't an audience for female superhero movies]]. For a while it looked like the popularity of Creator/ScarlettJohansson's portrayal of Black Widow would lead to the film being SavedFromDevelopmentHell, but this turned out to be false. Instead, [[ComicBook/CarolDanvers Captain Marvel]] became the MCU's first female headliner. Black Widow would have to wait until [[Film/BlackWidow2021 2021]]. |
| 50 | * Creator/PeterUstinov was originally going to play Inspector Clouseau in ''Film/ThePinkPanther1963'', but left over a salary dispute. |
| 51 | * Creator/MichaelMoorcock has mentioned that, if it weren't for a timely intervention by his lawyers, his famous EvilWeapon Stormbringer might've appeared unauthorised in ''Film/RedSonja''. |
| 52 | * In ''Film/AHardDaysNight'', Music/RingoStarr's parading was originally supposed to have a lot more dialogue. But Ringo came in too drunk to remember lines. This was probably to the greater benefit of the film. Additionally, there was a scene with Paul and a young actress rehearsing her lines in a rather [[LargeHam enthusiastic way]]. The special edition DVD has stills from the scene and an interview with the actress who played the actress. |
| 53 | * ''Film/{{Help}}'' included a deleted scene with Creator/FrankieHowerd and Creator/WendyRichard. ''Film/MagicalMysteryTour'' was to include an accordionist scene, a scene with the one of the buskers (Happy Nat, the Rubber Man) racing around a swimming pool (a scene directed by Music/JohnLennon), a scene with the Beatles looking through a telescope, and one where they are passing candy to the bus riders. Also, Music/{{Traffic|Band}} and the Music/JimiHendrix Experience were to have had their own musical sequences. |
| 54 | ** To elaborate on the ''Help!'' example, the scene had the Beatles going to "The Sam Ahab School of Transcendental Elocution", where they are given acting lessons by Sam Ahab (Frankie Howerd). Wendy Richard plays the only other student there, a woman called "Lady Theatre/{{Macbeth}}". Her "transcendental" practices (which are apparently quite noisy) cause George to put in a pair of earplugs. Not long after, the cult plays their hypnotic music which puts everyone except for George (because of the earplugs) into a trance. The cult members try to chop off Ringo's hand to get the ring and George intervenes, which leads to the cult priest tossing an axe which is embedded in a mirror. The cult runs away as everyone starts to wake up and no one believes George. They see the axe in the mirror and John pulls it out, hands it to Lady Theatre/{{Macbeth}}, and asks her "is this a chopper that you see before you?" This explains why the Beatles later know to plug their ears for the cult's music and why George later identifies the cult priest in the Indian restaurant as "the guy who tried to chop [Ringo's] hand off". Incidentally, there were several other deleted scenes for ''Help!'' - one in which it is shown that Ringo keeps a live cow in his closet for fresh milk, one which had the Beatles driving around in a quarry, and one which had the last Beatle impersonating Ringo while in a tree house. |
| 55 | * ''ComicBook/SilverSurfer'': |
| 56 | ** In the early 80s, producer Lee Kramer approached Marvel about making a ''Silver Surfer'' movie, which would've co-starred Music/OliviaNewtonJohn as the Surfer's love interest. Envisioned as an epic in the vein of ''Film/TwoThousandAndOneASpaceOdyssey'', the film was planned to have an operatic rock soundtrack with 1000 guitars, and Kramer approached Music/PaulMcCartney (a massive comic fan) to write music for the project. Due to the ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'''s movie rights belonging to Constantin Films, Creator/StanLee and Creator/JackKirby collaborated on a graphic novel called ''Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience'', a new standalone origin story for the character that was planned to be used as the basis for the film. Despite concept art being created and [=McCartney=] expressing interest, the film never got off the ground. |
| 57 | ** Creator/QuentinTarantino approached Constantin Films about making the movie, but was turned down. |
| 58 | ** In 1991, a group of film students finished a short film starring the character, which used then-revolutionary CGI effects. Despite massive interest from various studios and Creator/OliverStone contacting the students about adapting the short as a feature, the project ended up in limbo. |
| 59 | ** John Turman wrote a screenplay, which featured the Surfer coming to Earth ahead of Galactus' arrival and encountering various quirky human characters, including Alicia Masters. The Surfer ends up stripped of his powers after an encounter with an evil military general, but eventually regains them and is convinced to turn against Galactus by Alicia. |
| 60 | ** In 1999, Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox approached a still-unknown Creator/JamesGunn to write a ''Silver Surfer'' treatment. He turned down the project in favor of a ''ComicStrip/SpyVsSpy'' film, which also never got made. |
| 61 | ** ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer'' was supposed to lead to a ''Silver Surfer'' spin-off, as well as a third ''Fantastic Four'' movie, which would've reportedly featured the ComicBook/BlackPanther. In interviews at the time, director Tim Story expressed interest in casting Creator/DjimonHounsou as Black Panther. Creator/JMichaelStraczynski was brought in to write the ''Silver Surfer'' movie, which would've been both a sequel and an origin story, and would've featured ComicBook/{{Galactus}} in his iconic humanoid form instead of as a sentient cloud. The underwhelming performance of ''Rise of the Silver Surfer'' ultimately ended up killing both projects. |
| 62 | * Writer and director Dan Gordon conceived ''Film/SurfNinjas'' as a straight action adventure film in the vein of ''Franchise/IndianaJones'', just with teenage protagonists. After he was fired over a disagreement about a casting choice, the project was rewritten into a goofy comedy. However, some of the darker elements (particularly concerning the villain) survived, causing serious MoodWhiplash. |
| 63 | * Music/PaulMcCartney: |
| 64 | ** He has stated that Creator/FrancoZeffirelli offered ''him'' the role of Romeo for his 1968 ''Film/{{Romeo and Juliet|1968}}''. |
| 65 | ** He was also asked to play Billy Shears in ''Film/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'', a role that went to a rather unlucky Peter Frampton when Paul wanted nothing to do with the movie. |
| 66 | * Cases of What Actually Was referencing What Could Have Been: |
| 67 | ** ''Film/SnakeEyes'''s epilogue has Nic Cage saying (not verbatim): "I keep having nightmares about that water-logged tunnel, where I drown." Cage was supposed to chase Gary Sinise through various obstacles, including a water-logged tunnel, before Sinise [[spoiler: was run over by [[ChekhovsGun a large globe that had fallen off a building during a storm]]]]. Test audiences didn't like it, so [[spoiler: the chase was cut down, the globe gets pushed off course by a wave, and Sinise kills himself]]. |
| 68 | ** While ''Film/TheGoonies'' recount their adventure to their parents, they mention an encounter with a giant squid that was cut from the finished film. The scene was shot, and it appears on the DVD release under "deleted scenes" (it has also occasionally been reinserted in some televised presentations). Data manages to fend it off with his walkman. Another deleted scene had Andi being given the Goonie Initiation, which ended with them realizing that they were in a pool filled with leeches. Data saves them by dropping a battery or something. |
| 69 | * The original script of ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark'' did not feature the part where the ''T. rex'' is brought to San Diego. It instead ended with the characters being rescued from the island and featured Roland Tembo actually getting to use his high-caliber rifle to blow a raptor's head off, as well as a scene with pteranodons that was very similar to the one used in the end of the third movie. |
| 70 | ** The original script of the '''first''' ''Film/JurassicPark'' movie followed the plot of [[Literature/JurassicPark the book]] much more closely, but it was found to be far too long (the total length of the movie would've been close to three hours) so they made a shorter version. |
| 71 | *** The original script was also closer to the bleaker tone of the novel, and ended with John Hammond ''committing suicide''. Which, even though he was actually a bad guy in that version of the story, wasn't exactly the note that Spielberg wanted to end the film on (he wanted it to have a less dark tone, due to having to direct it and ''Film/SchindlersList'' back-to-back). |
| 72 | *** The rotunda climax was also in limbo for quite a long while. There were a few endings proposed, including Grant shoving a raptor into the jaws of the T-rex skeleton from a mobile crane, Grant crushing the raptors with the skeletons, etc. There was even one ending that included Hammand [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome shooting the raptors himself]]. |
| 73 | *** At one point there was talk of eliminating Ian Malcolm from the film and rolling some of his character traits into Alan Grant, much as they did with Ed Regis getting merged into Gennero. This would have resulted in a cocky, more joking Alan. |
| 74 | *** In a related issue, the ''T. rex'''s attack on the Jeep originally didn't have Malcolm use a flare to distract the dinosaur so Grant could rescue the kids; Malcolm would have fled much the way Gennero just had. Creator/JeffGoldblum suggested to Spielberg that having Malcolm risk his life would be more interesting. |
| 75 | ** ''Film/JurassicParkIII'' was going to be about a group of teenagers trapped on the island (apparently scrapped for being like an episode of ''Series/{{Friends}}'' -- [[JustForFun/RecycledINSPACE with dinosaurs!]]) The movie was going to have a climactic battle between the spinosaurus and either raptors or the army, but neither made it to the final film. |
| 76 | ** John Sayles' script for ''Jurassic Park 4'' had been lingering in Development Hell since ''2004''. Judging by [[http://www.aintitcool.com/node/18166 script reviews]], it's not hard to see why. The film would start with a Pterosaur attack at a Little League game somewhere in the U.S., which is the latest in an ever-growing series of attacks across Central America and Mexico. The United Nations sends an unemployed soldier-of-fortune named Nick Harris (Creator/DavidBoreanaz was rumored to be interested in the character) to Isla Nublar to retrieve the dinosaur DNA samples stolen by Dennis Nedry. Nick is captured by a top-secret corporation after he retrieves and hides the samples, and he is brought to a medieval castle in Switzerland. And at that castle, he is tasked by the head of the corporation to ''[[SuperSoldier train a group of genetically enhanced humanoid 'raptor soldiers]]''. |
| 77 | *** And here's leaked concept art of those "raptor soldiers" http://imgur.com/a/gsVLI |
| 78 | ** At least twice has a moment wherein ''Pteranodons'' attack and bring down a helicopter been cut from ''Jurassic Park'' films. They finally got to use it in ''Film/JurassicWorld'' though. |
| 79 | ** Speaking of ''Film/JurassicWorld'', there were supposed to be human-dinosaur hybrids in the movie, with the in-universe explaanation that they were created because they were more obedient and had better problem-solving skills. |
| 80 | * A ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry'' film was considered when Al Lowe demonstrated the first game. |
| 81 | * In the ''Film/AustinPowers'' series, the fight with Random Task in the first movie originally took place during the countdown of Project Vulcan, ending with a parody of [=OddJob=]'s death scene from ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'' (where Austin threw a [[ProductPlacement Big Gulp]] at Random Task's feet, and electrical currents travel through his wet sock and zapped him to death). In the second movie, the scene introducing Felicity Shagwell was different, and preceded by an OverlyLongGag where an assassin nods to someone, who in turn nods to someone else, and it goes on until the assassin finally gets nodded back and proceeds with his mission to kill Austin. Not to mention that Fat Bastard's dialogue was [[SoundEffectBleep constantly censored]]. There was even going to be a scene featuring the Guru Pitka from ''Film/TheLoveGuru''. |
| 82 | * ''Film/TheCatInTheHat'': |
| 83 | ** The original draft for the film was said to be much more faithful to its [[Literature/TheCatInTheHat source material]], but executives at Creator/DreamWorkssKG and Creator/{{Universal}} decided to give the movie a more modern approach, likely in response to the box office success of Universal's ''Film/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'', another Creator/DrSeuss work. The studios hired several former writers of ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' to rewrite the script, and at that point, [[ToiletHumour we all]] [[ParentalBonus knew]] [[DemographicallyInappropriateHumor what was coming]]. |
| 84 | ** Music/RandyNewman submitted several songs in a bid to be the film's composer, but the producers disliked his music and instead hired Randy's cousin, [[Music/DavidNewman David]], to compose the score. |
| 85 | ** The title role initially went to Creator/TimAllen, despite Allen admitting that he hated the character as a child. Because of screenplay issues and Allen's previous commitment to ''Film/TheSantaClause 2'', which was going through rewrites of its own, he was let go from the movie. A replacement wouldn't come until several months later, when Creator/MikeMyers, a longtime fan of Creator/DrSeuss, decided to take up the role, though he also had [[ScrewedByTheLawyers legal issues that would've forced him to do the movie anyway]]. |
| 86 | ** Director Bo Welch stated that the kid who [[GroinAttack smacked the Cat's crotch with a pinata bat]] (named "Dumb Schweitzer" in the script) was to have a bigger, unspecified role in the movie than being a OneSceneWonder. |
| 87 | ** There are a number of scenes that were deleted from the final film, for various reasons (i.e. keeping the film's PG rating, lack of humor, ExecutiveMeddling and so on). Most of these scenes were shot and can be found on the DVD release. Some examples include: |
| 88 | *** An extended sequence exists where the cat physically examines Sally and Conrad before pulling out the Phunometer. |
| 89 | *** An additional verse of "Fun, Fun, Fun" had the Cat talk about a KnowNothingKnowItAll and making another LastSecondWordSwap in the end. This was included in the film's soundtrack. |
| 90 | *** After the kids sign the Cat's contract, the Cat ends up running into the Waldens' dog, Nevins. The Cat suddenly panics and jumps into Conrad's arms, exclaiming "A monster! He's gonna ''murder-lize'' me!" only for the kids to calm him down and introduce him to the dog proper. |
| 91 | *** The Fish attempting to contact Joan while the Things are wrecking the house. Joan can be seen playing a UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance (the same one Conrad played in the beginning of the film) while calling the Fish, not aware of who's calling. |
| 92 | *** After Nevins escapes and both the kids and the Cat go after him, the Cat begins to bounce around in the backyard, then stretches out his arm to close the door. The bit where the Cat closes the door was reversed and utilized in a TV spot. |
| 93 | *** The sequence where the kids and Cat search for Nevins (right before the piñata scene) is much longer, where the Cat and the kids would jump over multiple fences and go down a stream, with the Cat in the latter scenario sitting on a beach chair showing the same picture of Joan Walden that had [[SomethingElseAlsoRises aroused him earlier in the movie]] to the audience. The infamous "[[DoubleEntendre Dirty hoe!]]" remark by the Cat is not in this cut. |
| 94 | *** Instead of Larry going straight to Joan's office with an escaped Nevins, he finds his repossessed TV at a store and attempts to cut a deal with the store owner. He leaves Nevins behind by [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals tying him up with a television set plug and throwing him in one of the sets]]. The kids and the Cat would rescue Nevins here. Additionally, the Cat would disguise himself as a floor mat when the store owner and Larry talk about the deal, and goes through numerous pains such as having a cigarette put on his fur and being stomped on by a group of children before choosing [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere to bail]] when [[OhCrap a man jumping on a pogo stick approaches]]. |
| 95 | *** An extended sequence at the dance club where Conrad and Sally stop for a moment to watch the Cat dance with Creator/ParisHilton, before Larry comes in, finds the crew and pounces the Cat. Larry accidentally shoves into Hilton, who exclaims "Dude, you must chill!" There's also no talk about the Cat losing his hat at the club (which [[spoiler:he never lost to begin with]]). Perhaps the most infamous part of this scene (and may very well be the reason why it was cut) is when Conrad looks behind him to see his mother's office. |
| 96 | ----> '''Conrad''': "I think that might be Mom's office."\ |
| 97 | '''Sally''': *''looks sarcastically at audience''* "Ya think?!" |
| 98 | *** Initially, the Things were to distract Joan from reaching the house by creating a flood, instead of disguising as police officers in the final cut. Several ideas on how to create a flood were tossed around, such as blowing up a dam, putting a pill that creates floods in a water bottle, and more bizarrely, drinking hundreds, if not ''thousands'', of water bottles [[{{Squick}} before urinating it all out]]. All three scenarios were shot but scrapped before the film went to post-production. |
| 99 | *** After being sent out of the Walden household, Larry find Nevins the dog and is about to kick him, only to be attacked by a larger dog nearby and chased off, though not before said dog rips his pants off. |
| 100 | *** Sally makes amends with all her friends she alienated in the past at the business party for Joan's employer, offering them her cupcakes. Dumb Schweitzer appears again and puts a finger over a candle, yelling in a deadpan voice "Ow, hot." In the final film, the friends can be seen in the background during the party, suggesting that this scene is canon. |
| 101 | ** Before the film was released, there was already talk of a sequel based off ''The Cat in the Hat Comes Back'', published a year after the original book, in the works, confirmed by Mike Myers himself. However, the film's critical failure, dismal box office performance, and a mandate by the widow of Dr. Seuss that barred any future live-action films based off Dr. Seuss' works prevented the sequel from ever going forward. What it would have been like is forever a mystery as a script was never written. |
| 102 | * ''Film/TheWickerMan1973'' and ''The Wicker Tree'' were planned to be followed by ''Wrath of the Gods'', making a ''Wicker Man'' trilogy. |
| 103 | * ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' underwent about a dozen script drafts and four writers. Early on, the Cowardly Lion was in fact the cursed form of a handsome prince named Florizel (which is the name of the Prince in the Sleeping Beauty fairytale), who would battle the Witch in midair and kill her by cutting apart her broom while Dorothy watched from the sidelines. A female soda jerk was going to accompany Dorothy from Kansas at one point (again, ?!?). Elements from the books floated in and out of the script, and about three characters each served as Professor Marvel's and the Wicked Witch's sounding boards (eventually Professor Marvel talked to his horse and the Witch to the leader of the winged monkeys). One element, however, was in the very first draft and never changed: Kansas in sepia, Oz in Technicolor. |
| 104 | ** A number of [[ExecutiveMeddling MGM executives]] wanted Creator/JudyGarland to wear a blonde wig and "baby doll" makeup, when they weren't considering casting Creator/ShirleyTemple as Dorothy. The makeup went long past the screen-test stage: it was used for the first several weeks of filming, under the direction of the film's original director, Richard Thorpe. When Creator/BuddyEbsen had to leave the production due to illness (another WhatCouldHaveBeen: Jed Clampett of ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies'' initially played the Tin Man), the producers took the opportunity to sack Thorpe and retool a number of aspects of the production, including Creator/JudyGarland's appearance and performance. |
| 105 | *** Ebsen was first cast as the Scarecrow and Creator/RayBolger as the Tin Man, then the roles were swapped. |
| 106 | ** One early script had ''Aunt Em'' as the abusive witch who wanted to kill Toto to punish Dorothy! |
| 107 | ** The best-known deleted idea is perhaps the least interesting out of all of these: Scarecrow's [[CutSong Jitterbug Dance]]. Strange in that, in the final version of the film, the Witch makes reference to "sending a little insect" to infect Dorothy's friends, which never happens due to the scene and ensuing song-and-dance number being cut. (In later stage versions, "The Jitterbug" was restored. The Witch sends the Jitterbug to wear out Dorothy and her friends -- because when the Jitterbug gets you, you can't stop dancing -- so it will be easier for the flying monkeys to kidnap them.) |
| 108 | ** A "What almost wasn't" was "Over The Rainbow", which was almost cut because the execs weren't sure about the heroine singing in a farmyard. Fortunately, good judgment prevailed and it stayed. |
| 109 | ** There was also an extra scene back in Kansas at the end of the film which got cut. In it, Hunk (the 'real-life' counterpart to the Scarecrow) was going away to agricultural college and Dorothy was promising to write to him. It basically indicated that the slight romantic vibe some viewers picked up between Dorothy and the Scarecrow had a factual basis. |
| 110 | ** Also, the Wicked Witch was going to be a glamourous Femme Fatale villainess not unlike the Queen in Disney's ''Snow White'', but that idea was scrapped and she became a traditional "old hag" style witch, which caused Gale Sondergaard to quit the part, because she refused to wear the "ugly" makeup. |
| 111 | ** In a bizarre spin on ViewersAreGeniuses, the screenplay called for the final shot to be camera panning down to reveal Dorothy was still wearing the ruby slippers, but the studio believed that audiences were ''too sophisticated'' to find the RealAfterAll twist believable. |
| 112 | ** The ruby slippers were initially silver shoes, like in the book, but ruby looked better in Technicolor. The Music/DeLaSoul music video for their song "Oooh" (off their ''AOI: Mosaic Thump'' album) references this when the Dorothy expy is fitted with silver platform heels instead of ruby slippers. It's also a bit of GeniusBonus, as more people are familiar with Dorothy and the ruby slippers, but not the silver ones from the original book. |
| 113 | ** Besides "The Jitterbug" being completely cut, other songs were trimmed. "Lions and tigers and bears (oh my!)" was a song rather than just a chant. The lion's "If I Only Had The Nerve" was longer and the Scarecrow had a long dance sequence in "If I Only Had a Brain". The Scarecrow's sequence still exists and appeared in both 1984's ''That's Dancing'' and on the 1989 50th anniversary release (and later laserdisc and DVD releases) as a supplement. In general, the film's music underwent more changes because of a change in the musical director partway through production. |
| 114 | * ''Film/BladeRunner'': |
| 115 | ** The script went through umpteen quite different revisions. The [[http://www.angelfire.com/movies/ridleyscott/script/BladeRunner072480.txt earliest revision around]] has the climax [[spoiler: in which Batty rescues Deckard]] missing in favor of having the antagonist killed in a slight RasputinianDeath before Deckard saves himself, and then ends up killing Rachael after a scene resembling the theatrical ending. |
| 116 | ** It bears mentioning that Creator/RobertMitchum was the original choice to play Deckard, and when it became clear that he was not going to be involved, Creator/DustinHoffman became the frontrunner. A number of other actors were considered, including Creator/NickNolte and, possibly, Creator/AlPacino. |
| 117 | ** Deckard was originally going to be portrayed as super-desperate when he faced Roy, feeling so cornered that he was willing to do anything - even give Roy oral. Ridley Scott chose to portray Deckard as defiant. |
| 118 | * It's not known what the context is, but there is no doubt that the [[ExecutiveMeddling executive letter]] to Creator/NicholasRay proscribing a kiss between Jim Stark and Plato is genuine. Given the release date of ''Film/RebelWithoutACause'', WhatCouldHaveBeen in this case could have ''significantly changed the course of gay rights''... |
| 119 | * Creator/AlejandroJodorowsky's 14-hour ''[[Film/JodorowskysDune Dune]]'' movie would have been... [[http://www.hotweird.com/jodorowsky/dunestory.html different...]] |
| 120 | * ''Film/TheMatrix'': |
| 121 | ** In ''The Art of The Matrix'', storyboard artist Steve Skroce reveals that many action scenes had to be cut or toned down to fit the budget. |
| 122 | ** The humans in the Matrix were originally intended to have their brains used as parts of a computer network, rather than being used as living batteries. The concept was changed due to [[ExecutiveMeddling the Powers that Be]] underestimating the viewers' intelligence. |
| 123 | ** To be honest, the film makes a LOT more sense if you assume that was actually the case and the human resistance was just stupid/misinformed/wrong. Scientific impossibility of using humans as a power source when the energy that comes out can never be worth more than the energy going in as food, for a start. |
| 124 | ** That's just cake compared to some of the other changes. Creator/TheWachowskis originally envisioned that a ''prequel'' would follow the first film, and this probably would have been akin to ''Anime/TheAnimatrix''. ''Film/TheMatrixReloaded'' and ''Film/TheMatrixRevolutions'' were originally conceived as '''one''' long movie (which explains a lot, frankly; the two films make a hell of a lot more sense if you watch them back to back and ignore such filler as the Zion Rave and Never-Ending Car Chase), and would have been the first film's one sequel. Lastly, ''Creator/WillSmith'' was considered for the role of Neo, Creator/GaryOldman was thought of for Morpheus, and Creator/SeanConnery was meant to play the Architect. |
| 125 | *** Will Smith actually passed on ''The Matrix'' to play Jim West in ''Film/WildWildWest''. He called that choice [[OldShame the biggest mistake of his career.]] |
| 126 | *** Speaking of, Sean Connery has his own personal What Could Have Been: he said "no" to being in ''Matrix'', but he also said "no" to starring in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''. Realizing he should probably sign on to a fantastic film series while the gettin' was good, he vowed to star in whatever opportunity came up next -- and wound up saying "okay" to the infamous ''Film/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen''... |
| 127 | ** While a 1996 draft of the script was fairly close to the final film, there were several changes that border on {{Narm}} territory: |
| 128 | *** Smith yells, "[[BigNo Nooo!]]" twice. |
| 129 | *** Trinity's "Dodge This" line was originally, "Dodge this, motherf***er!" |
| 130 | *** The climactic scene of Neo returning to life originally had him getting up, then giving the finger to Smith, who helplessly yells, "Nooooo!" as the elevator doors close. |
| 131 | ** There was originally going to be a scene where Trinity contacted Neo in a 90's chat room - naturally, it would have been full of trolls. At one point, Neo would have remarked that "F***in' idiots don't know s**t." |
| 132 | * Try finding a ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' fan who isn't the least bit curious as to what the Creator/TomStoppard scripted version would have been like...or the unedited version of the final script, which was much longer. Especially the original ending, which was unceremoniously lopped off and will likely never be seen. The best people get is what is cobbled together on Website/YouTube. |
| 133 | * ''Film/HomeAlone'': |
| 134 | ** According to Creator/ChrisColumbus, and early promotion posters, the original music score was to be composed by Bruce Broughton, who ultimately got caught up with scoring ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder'', and was unavailable to score this film. |
| 135 | ** Columbus envisioned a scene in which the furnace came to life, gets up on all fours and chases Kevin to the stairs. The scene would have cost over a million dollars, so it was trimmed down to the furnace simply lighting up, and groaning Kevin's name. |
| 136 | ** Creator/TimAllen, Creator/DanAykroyd, Creator/JamesBelushi, Creator/ChevyChase, Creator/KevinCostner, Creator/MichaelDouglas, Creator/HarrisonFord, Creator/MelGibson, Creator/JohnGoodman, Creator/CharlesGrodin, Creator/TomHanks, Mark Linn-Baker, Creator/ChristopherLloyd, Creator/SteveMartin, Creator/RickMoranis, Creator/BillMurray, Creator/JackNicholson, Creator/SeanPenn, Creator/DennisQuaid, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, Creator/MartinSheen, Tom Skerritt, Creator/SylvesterStallone, Alan Thicke, Creator/JohnTravolta, Creator/RobinWilliams, and Creator/BruceWillis were considered for Peter [=McCallister=]. |
| 137 | ** Creator/KirstieAlley[[note]] She was busy with ''Film/LookWhosTalkingToo''[[/note]], Creator/StockardChanning, Creator/GlennClose, Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, Creator/GeenaDavis, Creator/LauraDern, Creator/CarrieFisher, Creator/JodieFoster, Creator/JenniferGrey, Creator/LindaHamilton, Music/{{Madonna}}, Creator/DarylHannah, Marilu Henner, Creator/HollyHunter, Creator/HelenHunt, Creator/AnjelicaHuston, Creator/DianeKeaton, Creator/JessicaLange, Maureen [=McCormick=], Kelly [=McGillis=], Music/BetteMidler, Creator/MichellePfeiffer, Creator/AnniePotts, Creator/AllySheedy, Creator/SharonStone, Creator/SigourneyWeaver and Creator/DebraWinger were all considered for Kate [=McCallister=]. |
| 138 | ** Harry was written with Creator/RobertDeNiro in mind. Creator/RowanAtkinson, Music/PhilCollins, Creator/DannyDeVito, Creator/BobHoskins, Creator/JonLovitz and Creator/DudleyMoore were also considered for the role. |
| 139 | ** [[TheScrooge Uncle Frank]] was written with Creator/KelseyGrammer in mind. |
| 140 | ** Creator/MichaelRichards was considered for Marv. |
| 141 | ** Creator/ChrisFarley auditioned for Santa Claus. This idea became this basis for his iconic "Motivational Santa" sketch for ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''. |
| 142 | * Music/MichaelJackson as Jareth in ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}''. ''Creator/JimHenson -- The Biography'' reveals that the original conception of Jareth was simply as another special-effects creation, rather than someone to be played by a real actor. When that changed, [=Simon MacCorkindale=] and Creator/KevinKline were initially considered for the part. Once the creators decided a popular musician should play Jareth and provide songs, Henson initially wanted Sting for the role. It was Henson's sons John and Brian who suggested he should consider Music/DavidBowie, arguing that he would have more lasting appeal. ''Labyrinth'' went through a lot more than this, though... |
| 143 | ** Originally the story was going to be set only in a fantasyland, with Sarah a RebelliousPrincess; this was changed to better distinguish it from ''Film/{{Legend 1985}}''. The "real world" setting was originally the Victorian era, but changed to ThePresentDay because this was seen as easier to market to audiences. And had credited screenwriter Terry Jones had his way, we wouldn't have had any idea what was at the center of the Labyrinth or seen the Goblin King (according to the 25th anniversary retrospective article in ''Empire'') until Sarah got there. |
| 144 | ** In the [[http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Labyrinth.html earliest available draft of the script]] that Jones and Laura Phillips wrote, Sarah was babysitting Toby (then known as Freddie) when she opened the door to, and let in, a stranger against her parents' warning. He turned out to be Jareth, who kidnapped Toby ForTheEvulz and was gradually transforming him into a goblin as the story progressed. The divorce of Sarah's parents figured more heavily; the ring she gives the Wiseman as a donation in the finished film was originally a gift from her mother that she was reluctant to part with. The Wiseman and his Hat got a lot more to do, for that matter, wandering through the action and eventually inspiring Hoggle to rejoin the party after he betrayed Sarah. |
| 145 | ** The Bog of Eternal Stench wasn't in early drafts; Hoggle was instead threatened with a water-filled pit. The junkyard was a junk ''town'' complete with a bar where Hoggle went to drown his sorrows. |
| 146 | ** The novelization reveals that the unchosen door with a living knocker led to a CrapsaccharineWorld where nobody can stop laughing; Sarah barely escapes. And the Fireys originally offered to help Sarah find the castle, but they didn't know what one was... |
| 147 | ** Jareth was a ''very'' different character in early drafts. As mentioned above, he kidnapped the baby ForTheEvulz, not because Sarah wished it to be taken away. The white owl was a separate entity rather than his shapeshifted form, while the Junk Lady was a giant puppet he operated from within. His attraction to Sarah was outright lecherous (when she took the big jump in the Escher room she landed on a bed). She had to '''physically fight him off''' to rescue Toby, and finally said "I wouldn't want you if you were the last...''goblin'' on Earth!" whereupon he shrank into one himself. And while the points in the story where he would have sung are the same in the early Jones/Phillips draft as they would be in the finished film, their ideas for what he would sing about are completely different from what [[Music/DavidBowie his songwriter/actor]] came up with. |
| 148 | * In ''Film/TheIsland2005'', Creator/ScarlettJohansson wished to go topless for the sex scene with Creator/EwanMcGregor's (first) character, but this was vetoed by Creator/MichaelBay as he wanted to keep a PG-13 rating for the film. The climactic fight scene between Lincoln and Merrick was also supposed to be much more elaborate and spectacular, but the budget was stretched thin by then and so a stripped down version was filmed instead. |
| 149 | * The Film/TransformersFilmSeries: |
| 150 | ** The script for ''Film/Transformers2007'' originally had Soundwave sneaking into Air Force One to hack the military network, once escaping he would [[ShapeshifterBaggage mass shift]] into a Hummer to search for Sam -- and Ravage would be tracking down the American soldiers in South America. Once Creator/MichaelBay was brought on board he stated emphatically "No Mass Shifting!" The roles were divided into two teams with Blackout (the helicopter) and Scorponok being the closest Soundwave/Ravage analog and Barricade/Frenzy took on the role hunting down Sam and Blackout/Scorponok terrorizing the soldiers in the Middle East. The writers felt the reduced individual time with more robots would not have done Soundwave justice, and they rather not have Soundwave at all than do him wrong. |
| 151 | ** A [[spoiler: death scene for the character Fig was filmed and can even be seen in the trailer, and was included in the novelization, but was cut because Bay ended up liking the character and decided to leave his fate ambiguous if he wanted to bring him back for a sequel]]. |
| 152 | ** Before his StarMakingRole in ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'', Creator/AzizAnsari was up for a bit part as an Indian call center employee. He ended up passing on the role because he found the insistence that he had to use a hokey Indian accent (despite being from America) degrading. |
| 153 | ** In ''Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen'', numerous rewrites, mostly due to the 2008-2009 writer's strike led to filming beginning with a script that wasn't totally finished, leading to several scenes not making it into the film such as: more explanation for Megatron and the Fallen's relationship and why Megatron is serving him: The Fallen would have promised to make Megatron a Prime for aiding him and killing Optimus, and Megatron, wishing to be stronger, would agree and would turn on the Fallen in the final battle when Optimus revealed to him that only an Autobot can be a Prime. There was also supposed to be a scene where one of the Fallen's minions, Ransack, who turned into both an old bi-plane and a T-model car, would have tracked and attacked Sam, Mikaela, Simmons, Leo, Bumblebee, Skids, Mudflap, and Jetfire in the desert, where he'd unintentionally offend Bumblebee by calling Jetfire a 'yellow-bellied traitor', Jetfire would have held Ransack off and defeated him by crushing him to death, thus explaining Jetfire's absence for a portion of the film and Ransack nearly made it into the final film, as a character model was made and this scene made it into the novelization, but it's unknown if it was ever filmed. Another scene would have had Leo figure out that Alice was a Decepticon in disguise by seeing an ad on TV for a new ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' attraction with an animatronic Alice that looks just like..., well, Alice. The film also would have had a cliffhanger, with Megatron rising up a protoform army, which was briefly seen earlier on when he entered the Decepticon ship and confronted Starscream. Most of these scenes were retained in the novelization and comic adaptation. Also, there were meant to be more Autobots such as Springer, Depth Charge, and Breakaway. |
| 154 | ** In ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon'', Sentinel Prime was originally going to be named Ultra Magnus. This was changed because [[spoiler: they didn't want Magnus' name to be tarnished by betraying the Autobots]]. Alternatively, [[MemeticMutation he just couldn't deal with that now.]] Also, [[spoiler: Wheeljack/Que had a different death; being dragged underwater into the Chicago river by hidden Decepticons]] and Mirage/Dino also would have died, having his head torn off by Starscream. The ending would have also been changed to Megatron, after helping defeat Sentinel, would offer Optimus a truce, the terms being leaving the Autobots alone on earth while the Decepticons return to rule over Cybertron, and this was changed as Optimus wouldn't look too smart making a truce with Megatron, who literally just helped to kill the last person he made a truce with. |
| 155 | ** For ''Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction'' there were originally two more characters; a female Decepticon named Widow Maker who was either replaced by Stinger or would have been Lockdown's partner, killed by the Autobots during their escape and her death is why Lockdown is trying to flatout murder Optimus in the climax instead of capturing him. The other was a fifth Dinobot, a Velociraptor named Slash would would have broken up from Robot-mode into an entire pack of raptors. There was also supposed to be a scene explaining how Attinger gets to the final battle; shooting an innocent civilian in the head and taking his car as well as a bonding scene in the church the heroes hide out in, briefly seen in the TV trailers with Hound dancing to a song while Drift bobs his head as well. |
| 156 | * ''Film/MissionImpossibleGhostProtocol'' would've had a cameo by Creator/PeterGraves, the original actor to play Jim Phelps, the hero of the TV series, possibly out of goodwill that it would undo the damage [[Film/MissionImpossible1996 the first film]] did to his reputation, but his untimely death on March 2010 put an end to those plans. |
| 157 | * The first movie version of ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'', which was never made, looks like it would have been a much more typical humorous action heavy campy superhero flick. The fact that the project got stuck in DevelopmentHell and was eventually dropped is probably proof of God's mercy. |
| 158 | ** In one script, the reason masked heroes are outlawed is when they fail to save the Statue of Liberty from being blown up by terrorists, and [[spoiler:Ozymandias']] plot was to open a time portal and kill Dr. Manhattan before he transformed, and it all would have ended with history being rewritten and the Watchmen ending up in a dumpster in OUR world. |
| 159 | ** ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' had a boatload of "What Could Have Been"s. Among them: |
| 160 | *** Creator/TerryGilliam was at one point attached to be director. At this point, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger was considered for the part of Doctor Manhattan. |
| 161 | *** In 2004, Creator/SimonPegg was in negotiations for the part of Rorschach and Creator/JoaquinPhoenix was considered for the part of Doctor Manhattan (who was designed to have visible intestines). |
| 162 | *** Creator/JessicaAlba, Creator/MillaJovovich, and Creator/JenniferConnelly were considered for the part of Silk Spectre II. One version of the script had the character being given "slingshot powers" from Doctor Manhattan. |
| 163 | *** Creator/KeanuReeves tried for some time to get the part of Doctor Manhattan. |
| 164 | *** Creator/JudeLaw, Creator/LeePace, and Creator/TomCruise all were considered for the part of Ozymandias. |
| 165 | *** Creator/RonPerlman had discussed playing The Comedian. |
| 166 | * ''Film/GreenLantern2011'': |
| 167 | ** Early drafts of the film featured Legion as the BigBad, rather than Parallax. |
| 168 | ** The movie was heavily altered in editing, with a number of elements removed or switched around. Flashbacks showing Hal Jordan's childhood with Carol Ferris and Hector Hammond were cut, as was another flashback that would have provided set-up for Hal's race track construct later in the film. |
| 169 | ** Parallax was originally going to be a surprise third act reveal, but the studio altered the story so that he was established as the main threat from the very beginning. This change incited CreatorBacklash from director Martin Campbell. |
| 170 | ** Music/JustinTimberlake, Creator/BradleyCooper, and Creator/JaredLeto were all in the running to play Hal Jordan. |
| 171 | ** A cameo featuring Nick Jones as John Stewart (the Green Lantern audiences knew from ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'') was filmed, but ultimately cut. |
| 172 | ** Earlier drafts featured Alan Scott, UsefulNotes/{{the Golden Age|OfComicBooks}} Green Lantern, as a RetiredBadass who would have served as the narrator and something of a mentor to Hal. |
| 173 | ** Guy Gardner was going to appear in a cameo. |
| 174 | ** The Green Lantern ring was going to search for other potential Green Lanterns first, stopping at the Daily Planet and landing on the desk of [[ComicBook/{{Superman}} Clark Kent]], before flying off again. The cameo was cut due to budgetary concerns. |
| 175 | ** One ending would have Hal kissing a dying Carol and reigniting the Green Lantern ring. |
| 176 | ** The film ends with an obvious SequelHook for a second installment with Sinestro as the BigBad. |
| 177 | ** The movie was initially going to be the start of a DC cinematic universe, with Creator/AngelaBassett's Amanda Waller playing a ComicBook/NickFury-like role throughout the various films. This idea was scrapped due to the film's poor reception and box office bombing, and DC eventually started their shared universe with ''Film/ManOfSteel''. |
| 178 | ** Robert Smigel wrote a script for a comedic ''Green Lantern'' film that would have starred Creator/JackBlack as a CanonForeigner GL named Jud Plato. According to Smigel, the Corps would've been portrayed in a serious, respectful manner, which he felt would serve to make Plato seem funnier by comparison. Highlights included Jud proving his fearlessness by eating a coyote on live TV, and catching criminals with a giant energy condom. But seeing as this news came out around the time of the "creative liberties" of ''Film/Catwoman2004''... Meanwhile, back in The80s there was a similar attempt at a comedic ''Green Lantern'' which would have starred Creator/EddieMurphy. |
| 179 | * Creator/GeorgeMiller came close to making a ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica film in 2007, with a cast consisting of Armie Hammer (who would later play ''Film/TheLoneRanger'') as ComicBook/{{Batman}}, D.J. Cotrona as ComicBook/{{Superman}}, Megan Gale as ComicBook/WonderWoman, rapper Common as ComicBook/GreenLantern (John Stewart), and Adam Brody as ComicBook/TheFlash (Barry Allen), with ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}, ComicBook/MartianManhunter, and a teenage Wally West appearing as well. The story had Maxwell Lord (played by Creator/JayBaruchel), Talia al Ghul, and the ComicBook/{{OMAC}}s as the villains, with a plot loosely inspired by Creator/MarkWaid's ''[[ComicBook/JLATowerofBabel Tower of Babel]]'', and Creator/GregRucka's ''The O.M.A.C. Project'' and ''Countdown to ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis''. The movie would have ended with Barry pulling a HeroicSacrifice to defeat Lord, setting up Wally to become the new Flash in future installments. It got far enough along in production that sets were created and filming was ready to start. However, the project was put on hold before filming could commence following the 2007 writer's strike, the death of the costume designer, and an unfavorable change in Australia's tax code. Even after the strike ended and a new costumer designer was hired, most of the cast had moved on and Warner Bros. lost interest in the project following the success of ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', leading to the film's cancellation. |
| 180 | * An early script for ''Film/WildWildWest'', written by none other than Creator/ShaneBlack, [[http://hayekheaven.tripod.com/www_original.txt has been posted on the Internet]], and it is ''far'' more faithful to the details of [[Series/TheWildWildWest the original series]] than the version which finally made it to the screen. About the only thing that didn't get changed was the [[SpiderTank giant mechanical spider]]. What ''is'' it with producer [[ExecutiveMeddling Jon Peters]] and [[AuthorAppeal Giant Spiders]], anyway? |
| 181 | ** A big-screen reboot of ''Wild Wild West'' had been mooted since 1992, with the abovementioned Shane Black screenplay providing the story, Mel Gibson set to play Jim West and Creator/RichardDonner attached to direct. It's likely no coincidence that Gibson and Donner ended up doing an adaptation of another Western TV show: ''Film/{{Maverick}}''. |
| 182 | * The original script of ''Film/TheTrumanShow'' had Truman living in a fake UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, continued the story after Truman got out of his studio, and was a lot more disturbing. Creator/PeterWeir had the story rewritten to make it believable that people would want to ''watch'' The Truman Show, and hence made Truman's life more idyllic and escapist. |
| 183 | * ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndTheMagicRailroad'' was to have featured a human villain named "P.T. Boomer". Originally, it was he who had taken Lady out for a spin and crashed her (not Diesel 10) which caused Burnett to feel guilt. Boomer's motivation against Burnett was [[DisproportionateRetribution because he had taken his love interest Tasha from under his nose]], and the reason for his return to Shining Time was to seek out Lady and destroy her. He was removed from the plot as test audiences apparently found him "too scary", leaving the filmakers to plaster over whatever they could. So late was his removal that he was still seen in the trailer yelling "I'll get you, you blue puffball!" and the only scene of him in the proper movie is a motorcyclist asking directions (and his line redubbed by another actor). |
| 184 | * Creator/RowanAtkinson's character in ''Film/LoveActually'' was originally meant to be an angel, thereby explaining his eerie familiarity with characters who had never met him before. In his final scene he was meant to disappear while walking away from Liam Neeson in the airport. The whole idea was eventually scrapped and left us with a funny, if somewhat random, performance from Atkinson. |
| 185 | * Gus van Sant was at one point in negotiations to direct ''Film/TheTimeTravelersWife2009'' |
| 186 | ** He was also attached to ''Film/SpeedRacer''. With Creator/JohnnyDepp starring. |
| 187 | ** Speaking of ''Film/TheTimeTravelersWife2009'', the film was originally going to star Creator/JenniferAniston and Creator/BradPitt, who bought the filming rights to Niffenegger's novel before it was released to the public. However, the RealLife dissolution of their marriage (and subsequent legal settlement) scrapped the plan. |
| 188 | * There are a surprising number of roles that were initially intended to be played by Creator/AnneHathaway, namely Christine in ''Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera2004'', Creator/KatherineHeigl's character in ''Film/KnockedUp'', and Johanna in ''Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet''. |
| 189 | ** Speaking of ''Sweeney Todd'', there's the matter of all the material from the stage musical that was cut from the film. Most notably, "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" was to be sung by a chorus of ghosts, which included Creator/ChristopherLee. This also explains the two-second cameo by Creator/AnthonyHead following the shaving contest. |
| 190 | ** And speaking of ''Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera2004'', Creator/HughJackman was apparently on the short list for the title role, but had other commitments at the time of filming. (While this wouldn't have solved all the film's problems, "Music of the Night" at least would have been awesome.) A much earlier ''Phantom'' film (late '90s) might have toplined Creator/AntonioBanderas, perhaps with Creator/KateWinslet as Christine. And even earlier, if Creator/AndrewLloydWebber and Sarah Brightman (the original stage Christine) hadn't divorced when they had, she would have played the role in the film, alongside original Phantom Creator/MichaelCrawford. |
| 191 | * Creator/GeorgeARomero penned a screenplay for a ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'' film that can still be found on the Internet. In general, aside from a few head-scratch-inducing changes, (making Chris Redfield into both a MagicalNativeAmerican and Jill's lover instead of being a S.T.A.R.S. member, the [[MechaMooks robotic]] Hunters, Jill being the team captain rather than Wesker, Barry becoming a ScaryBlackMan who gets killed off, etc.), the movie hangs together a fair bit better than the game it's based on, and is much, ''much'' more faithful to the source material than [[InNameOnly the films that did get made]]. |
| 192 | * ''Film/ManosTheHandsOfFate'' was supposed to have a sequel, which is why Torgo escapes from the house toward the end. However, its incredibly poor quality prevented that from happening. |
| 193 | ** And Torgo's actor committing suicide... |
| 194 | * Music/MichaelJackson ''really'' wanted to get into acting after he became a megastar, but those ambitions never amounted to much. Among the could-have-beens: |
| 195 | ** Playing Literature/PeterPan. Jackson was considered as Peter for Creator/StevenSpielberg's ''Film/{{Hook}}'', but didn't care for the film's premise of an older Peter Pan rediscovering his childhood. |
| 196 | ** When Creator/{{Paramount}} briefly considered producing ''Film/TheCrow1994'', they intended it to be a Jackson vehicle and a ''musical''. Upon being contacted about such an adaptation creator, writer, and illustrator of the comics, James O'Barr apparently laughed his ass off at the idea, thinking they were joking, only to be stunned when told they were serious. |
| 197 | ** According to the book ''Michael Jackson Unauthorized'', he had a conversation with Spielberg about playing the title character in the movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' (at the time, Spielberg's name was being thrown around as a potential director for it). Lloyd Webber has confirmed that Jackson wanted that role badly and kept bringing it up with him, but he was never seriously considered for it. |
| 198 | ** In 1993, according to ''Entertainment Weekly'', the first round of child molestation allegations killed a ''Jack and the Beanstalk'' adaptation and an original superhero movie, ''[=MidKnight=]''. |
| 199 | ** There was also talk earlier in '93 of mounting a remake of ''7 Faces of Dr. Lao'' with him as the title character. In the book ''Michael Jackson Inc.'' colleague/producer Rusty Lemorande discusses an unnamed film that made it to the pre-production/conceptual art stage and sounds suspiciously like this one -- the model sets included a circus train and an inner-city block (suggesting a SettingUpdate), and there were character designs for a variety of creatures Jackson would have played. |
| 200 | ** ''Michael Jackson Inc.'' also briefly discusses Jackson's attempts to buy the struggling Marvel Comics in the mid-1990s, with the intent of adapting its flagship titles into movies he could star in. Had this panned out, he might have played such roles as ''[[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark/Iron Man]] and [[ComicBook/ProfessorX Charles Xavier]]''. |
| 201 | ** Plans were announced for at least two film projects that never came to fruition at the TurnOfTheMillennium: ''The Nightmare of Edgar Allan Poe'' and ''Wolfed'', a werewolf movie based on Creator/AlexandreDumas' ''The Wolf King''. He would have played the lead roles in both. As the Creator/EdgarAllanPoe film was going to be written by a ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' writer and directed by the guy who made ''Fear Dot Com'', Cracked.com declared it the "worst movie Hollywood never made". |
| 202 | ** ''[[http://web.archive.org/web/20120509131847/http://michaeljacksonfollowers.yuku.com/topic/377/t/New-Michael-Jackson-Movie-animation-.html The Way of the Unicorn, the Endangered One]]'' was an animated feature that would have featured his voice. Faulty reporting on this one may have led to the "Michael Jackson was involved in the long-rumored live-action ''Literature/TheLastUnicorn'' adaptation" rumor. |
| 203 | ** According to the book ''The Man Behind the Mask'', Jackson was willing to appear in ''Film/MenInBlackII'' for free... if Creator/WillSmith was dropped from the film so he could play the protagonist. He wound up in a cameo instead. The scene in question is a little awkward. |
| 204 | ** According to brother Jermaine's book ''You Are Not Alone'', Jackson was all set to campaign for the role of Willy Wonka in the second ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' adaptation...then he was accused of child molestation for a second time, and that became impossible. Colleague/producer Marc Schaffel (in the biography ''Untouchable'') goes further with this, claiming that Michael wrote a '''whole soundtrack''' for the movie and submitted it to Creator/WarnerBros in 2000, figuring that they would give him the lead on the basis of it. But though executives loved it, they were not comfortable casting him as Willy Wonka, and offered to find another role in the film for him in exchange for the soundtrack. Michael was too dead set on the lead role to allow this, so it fell through. |
| 205 | ** ''Untouchable'' also mentions that he was working on a King Tut project for years. |
| 206 | ** He was planning to co-direct, with Bryan Michael Stoller, a film adaptation of Jennings Michael Burch's ''They Cage the Animals at Night'', a memoir of child abandonment and abuse in the orphanage/foster care system. |
| 207 | ** Jermaine has also claimed that Michael was supposed to be one of the founders of Creator/DreamWorksSKG, alongside Creator/StevenSpielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen, and points to the resemblance of the [=DreamWorks=] logo to that of Michael's Neverland Valley Ranch -- which was established as such in the late 1980s -- as proof. (Both feature a boy sitting on a crescent moon.) For unknown reasons, Michael was left out when the plans were finalized. No one else has made similar claims about this, though, so take this with a grain of salt... |
| 208 | ** He wanted to be The Riddler in ''Film/BatmanForever''. |
| 209 | ** He even lobbied to play a Klingon(!) in ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''. |
| 210 | * In Creator/DanAykroyd's original treatment for ''Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}}'', the film took place in the future, ghostbusting was commonplace, and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man would have appeared in the first twenty minutes. Ivan Reitman on the commentary for the film said that it would have cost 300 million dollars to make. To put this in perspective, Ghostbusters was made for about ''30'' million. In ''1984 dollars''. |
| 211 | ** Also, Dan was to have been joined by Creator/JohnBelushi (who died during writing, and later inspired Slimer) and Creator/ChevyChase. |
| 212 | ** And Creator/EddieMurphy would have played Winston. Winston's backstory was also more written out in the original script, with him being a former Marine and a Ph.D. with multiple degrees. His role was heavily rewritten to give a bigger part to Creator/BillMurray, which resulted in Winston's role getting significantly trimmed down and his introduction being moved to the middle of the film. Creator/ErnieHudson has said he still wishes he had gotten to play the original Winston instead of the role he ended up with. |
| 213 | ** Additionally, Creator/JohnCandy was the original choice for Louis Tully, who was conceived as an uptight businessman. According to the DVDCommentary, however, Candy had horrible ideas for the character. He wanted to play him as an over-the-top German stereotype with dogs. Creator/IvanReitman thought that the movie already had enough dogs, and everyone involved agreed that Candy just didn't get the character. They also agree that their subsequent choice of Creator/RickMoranis and ''his'' choice to play Tully as a meek accountant (which he felt more comfortable playing) is much funnier than any of Candy's ideas were. |
| 214 | ** In addition, the ghostbusters would travel through time with SWAT gear and wands in order to battle ghosts. |
| 215 | ** Aykroyd's idea for a third movie was a script called ''Ghostbusters 3: Hellbent'', in which the beloved quartet end up in an alternate hell dimension version of New York, called "Manhellton," where Central Park is filled with green demons and surrounded by thousand-foot-high apartment buildings. The Ghostbusters' nemesis was to be named "Lou Siffler," as in Lucifer -- a "UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump-like mogul" who was literally the devil. Plus, Aykroyd decided it would have to be computer-animated, because it would be "cheaper to produce". |
| 216 | * ''Film/GiveMyRegardsToBroadStreet'': Originally, the segment of the film after "Eleanor Rigby" proper and set in Victorian times (more or less) was to be set to normal classical music or be about six minutes shorter or both. Music/PaulMcCartney insisted on too many ideas for it to be short, and it's just as well: that segment does have a plot, and it contains a nice mixture of {{foreshadowing}} and {{Red Herring}}s which does add some badly-needed suspense and depth to what comes later. And Paul also figured that he could write his own classical. (The piece is titled "Eleanor's Dream," part from context and part from it leaning heavily on variations of the "Eleanor Rigby" theme.) |
| 217 | * ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'' starring Creator/PatrickStewart as Spider Jerusalem. |
| 218 | * ''Film/DarknessFalls'', in which the vengeful ghost of a murdered lady acts as a tooth fairy who ''kills'' you if you look at her, started production as a more psychological thriller simply called "The Tooth Fairy," without the murdered lady, and the actual Tooth Fairy (who has a side job as the Angel of Death) being the monster. The shift in focus came so late that an action figure based on the original Tooth Fairy design was released (and can be seen [[http://www.spawn.com/toys/product.aspx?product=2089 here]], in all its lost glory. |
| 219 | * ''Film/{{They}}'' was originally conceived as being about evil cybernetic creatures that stole people's organs to replace their own, that could make everyone forget their victims had ever existed. The actual script wound up replacing the cyborgs with supernatural night-terrors whose victims would be dismissed as crazy if they sought help. |
| 220 | * Paul Rudnick wrote the original draft of the screenplay of ''Film/SisterAct'' with Creator/BetteMidler in mind for the lead. When she turned it down, Rudnick left the project, and it was re-tooled for Whoopi. |
| 221 | * [[http://web.archive.org/web/20070422075939/http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0704/Impossibledreams.shtml A short story about films that could have been.]] |
| 222 | * Creator/JudyGarland: |
| 223 | ** She was supposed to star in three Creator/{{M|etroGoldwynMayer}}GM musicals that were made without her: ''The Barkleys of Broadway'' (which was supposed to follow up on the success of Garland and Creator/FredAstaire in ''Easter Parade'' but instead reunited Astaire with his old partner Creator/GingerRogers), ''Theatre/AnnieGetYourGun'' (which Garland was [[TheOtherMarty partially filmed in]] before being replaced by Betty Hutton) and ''Show Boat'' (where Creator/AvaGardner played the part written for Garland). |
| 224 | ** Judy was also, much later, slated to play Helen Lawson in the [[{{Camp}} extremely]] [[SoBadItsGood notorious]] film version of Jacqueline Susann's novel ''Film/ValleyOfTheDolls,'' but proved so unreliable by that point she never got past the screen test stage (Some of the crew however considered her firing to be staged by the film's director, who supposedly kept her waiting till very late in the day deliberately, knowing she'd be in no shape to perform). |
| 225 | * And then there's ''[[http://chud.com/articles/articles/21969/1/PROJECT-880-THE-AVATAR-THAT-ALMOST-WAS/Page1.html Project 880]]'', the early "scriptment" for a little movie called ''Film/{{Avatar}}''. Generally speaking, it hits the same basic plot points, but is also much longer and much more detailed, explaining many things that ended up being plot holes in the final film and lacking the MightyWhitey aspect altogether. There are also many interesting lost subplots. Perhaps they could be sequel fodder... |
| 226 | * The three henchmen at the beginning of ''Film/OnceUponATimeInTheWest'' were originally to be played by Creator/ClintEastwood, Creator/LeeVanCleef, [[Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly and]] Creator/EliWallach. But since Eastwood was unavailable, Creator/SergioLeone scrapped this. |
| 227 | * Creator/PeterSellers' sudden death in 1980 affected or scuppered several projects: |
| 228 | ** He was to topline a remake of Creator/PrestonSturges' ''Film/UnfaithfullyYours'' and the original comedy ''Valium!'' Both projects were eventually filmed as Creator/DudleyMoore vehicles, with the latter retitled ''Lovesick''. |
| 229 | ** ''Grossing Out'' was a satire about arms dealers to be scripted by Terry Southern (who wrote the source novel for ''The Magic Christian'' and co-wrote the ''Film/DrStrangelove'' screenplay) and directed by Creator/HalAshby (who had directed Sellers in ''Film/BeingThere''). |
| 230 | ** Most famously, ''Romance of the [[Franchise/ThePinkPanther Pink Panther]]'' was a GrandFinale for the franchise that Sellers was co-writing prior to his death and for which Creator/BlakeEdwards was well paid ''not'' to be involved in (directors that were attached: Creator/SidneyPoitier, then Clive Donner). The plot would have had Clouseau fall in love with a beautiful woman (Pamela Stephenson) without realizing that she's "The Frog", the jewel thief he's trying to capture. Creator/UnitedArtists tried to revive this project as a Dudley Moore vehicle (again!), but Moore would not play Clouseau unless Edwards was involved. Edwards didn't want to shoot that script, Moore moved on, and we got the ClipShow of ''Trail of...'' and ReplacementScrappy of ''Curse of...'' instead. |
| 231 | ** In a related issue, for a while Edwards was working on ''The Ferret'', set in the same universe as the ''Pink Panther'' series but focused on an original character: The son of a famous spy, forced to take his father's place. Sellers was still around when it was first being developed, but it ended up more associated as a could-have-been for Moore before it was demoted to a standalone TV movie in 1984 starring Creator/SteveGuttenberg. (That the role was attached to Moore can be seen in the character being a jazz musician, as Moore himself was.) |
| 232 | * ''Film/ThePrivateLifeOfSherlockHolmes'' would have had Creator/PeterOToole as Holmes and Creator/PeterSellers as Dr. Watson if the director's original wishes had been met. And it would have been a three-hour film with an intermission intended for roadshow engagements. |
| 233 | * Creator/LaurenceOlivier was approached for the supporting role of Benjamin Rand in ''Film/BeingThere'' -- which would have given the world the spectacle of him sharing scenes with fellow Brit superstar Creator/PeterSellers -- but turned it down when he found out what Creator/ShirleyMacLaine would be doing in the "I like to watch" scene. When you consider [[MoneyDearBoy all the roles he did take late in life]], the fact that he passed on the role that won Creator/MelvynDouglas his second Oscar does not speak well for his judgment. |
| 234 | * Before Creator/PhilHartman's death, there were plans for him to appear as his ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' character Troy [=McClure=] in a live action film. According to Creator/MattGroening the idea never "got further than enthusiasm", but "would have been really fun". |
| 235 | ** The plans for ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'' are numerous: one script focused on Bart and Lisa and co-starred Creator/SimonPegg, another had the Simpsons being filmed as part of a reality TV show, with Creator/WillFerrell as the show's producer, and two ''Simpsons'' episodes were originally thought up as feature-length scripts for the movie: "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E1KampKrusty Kamp Krusty]]",[[note]]season four episode where Bart and Lisa go to Kamp Krusty, and end up overthrowing it after the camp turns out to be a prison[[/note]] and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS17E1BonfireOfTheManatees Bonfire of the Manatees]]"[[note]]season 17 episode where Marge leaves Homer after finding out that he's using the house to let the Mafia film a porno in it, and Marge falls for a marine biologist voiced by Creator/AlecBaldwin[[/note]]. |
| 236 | * Creator/RiverPhoenix was on the cusp of being a breakout star when he died, resulting in him being replaced for roles he had been slated for: |
| 237 | ** Daniel Malloy, the interviewer in ''Film/InterviewWithTheVampire.'' The role went to Creator/ChristianSlater, who donated his salary to charities Phoenix supported. |
| 238 | ** Izzy Singer, in ''Safe Passage''. He was played by Creator/SeanAstin. |
| 239 | ** Cleve Jones, in Gus Van Sant's ''Film/{{Milk}}''. The movie was in {{development hell}} for more than a decade, until Van Sant finally produced ''Milk'', with Creator/EmileHirsch playing Jones. |
| 240 | ** Jim Carroll in ''The Basketball Diaries''. Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio portrayed him. |
| 241 | ** The lead role in a Creator/NeilJordan[=/=]Creator/JohnBoorman movie ''Broken Dreams''. The movie remains on hold. |
| 242 | ** When River died, he was starring in ''Dark Blood''. The film was left unfinished for almost twenty years, before the film was recut and due for release in 2012. |
| 243 | * Ever wondered why ComicStrip/FlashGordon and Ming The Merciless are included in the closing credits of ''Film/AChristmasStory''? It's because the script originally had a scene where Ralphie fantasizes about helping out Flash Gordon with a BB gun. It was filmed but got cut at the last minute. |
| 244 | * ''Film/TheMagnificentAmbersons'', directed by Creator/OrsonWelles. Perhaps the most tragic example of this trope in cinema history, the film was re-edited by the studio while he was out of the country. They then dumped the footage they removed into the ocean, as they did with many other things things they considered disposable. |
| 245 | ** Rumor exists that an original cut was flown to Welles in Brazil and could still survive... |
| 246 | ** While we're talking about Welles, he also planned, but never made, a version of ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness'' |
| 247 | ** Parodied in the long-running "rumor" of a partly completed film by Orson Welles called... ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu5tJGfZsgc Batman]].'' |
| 248 | * Creator/JohnCarpenter intended the ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'' series to be an anthology franchise, each telling a completely unrelated horror story. Unfortunately, ExecutiveMeddling forced [[Film/HalloweenII1981 the second film]] to be a direct sequel to [[Film/{{Halloween 1978}} the first]], and so when he tried to re-implement the idea with [[Film/HalloweenIIISeasonOfTheWitch the third film]], which turned out poorly thanks to the film's negative reception due to critics and audiences finding the story nonsensical, full of plot holes, and too strange, not helped by a massive fan rebellion over how it had nothing to do with the previous two films. This meant the later sequels also focused on Myers leaving film three as [[OddballInTheSeries an absurd aberration]] dropped in the middle of the story. |
| 249 | ** Carpenter and producer Debra Hill have stated several times that Creator/ChristopherLee was their first choice for the role of Dr. Loomis. He turned down the role. He now calls it the biggest mistake of his career. |
| 250 | *** Apparently, the part of Loomis was also offered to Lee's best friend and frequent co-star, Creator/PeterCushing. His agent evidently hated the idea. It is unknown if Cushing ever actually read the script. |
| 251 | ** The sixth installment in the franchise would have seen Michael Myers as a homeless guy sleeping at a local men's shelter, a reporter named Dana (who turns out to be Michael's long-lost sister), and a scene where Michael murders a Jason Vorhees-lookalike with a beer bong. |
| 252 | * Franchise/FridayThe13th was conceived as an anthology series, much like the original path of Franchise/{{Halloween}}, but this concept never saw the light of day. |
| 253 | ** The reboot was originally going to have a [[FoundFootageFilms Found Footage sequel]], but the producers vetoed the idea. |
| 254 | * ''Hellraiser vs Halloween'': Creator/CliverBarker and Creator/JohnCarpenter had both discussed a ''Halloween/Hellraiser'' crossover, but the project seems to have been cancelled. |
| 255 | * Creator/JeffBridges was considered for the part of Travis Bickle in ''Film/TaxiDriver''. In fact, according to the Website/{{IMDB}} pages, Creator/PaulSchrader said he wrote the part with him in mind. |
| 256 | * Creator/KateBosworth was the first choice for the dominatrix character of Gail in ''Film/SinCity'' |
| 257 | * Creator/MichaelMadsen was originally slated to play Bud White in ''Film/LAConfidential''. |
| 258 | * Creator/BenStiller originally wrote ''Film/TropicThunder'' intending to play Tugg Speedman's agent Rick Peck himself, with Creator/KeanuReeves as Speedman. Then, Owen Wilson was going to play Peck, but after his attempted suicide he was replaced by Creator/MatthewMcConaughey. Also, Mos Def turned down the role of Alpa Chino. |
| 259 | * Creator/MonicaBellucci was originally slated to play Mina Harker in ''Film/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'', but scheduling conflicts scuppered what could have been mind-fryingly awesome. |
| 260 | * ''Film/{{Hitman}}'' was screwed up in the last moment by ExecutiveMeddling. The near-final script, floating in the Internet, has no mention of where did Number 47 come from, no mention of the infamous train swordfight scene, more backstory for Nika and the BigBad, 47 is chased by Spetsnaz instead of the Agency, a shootout between 47 and Spetsnaz commandos on a moving train (and they're rappelling from helicopters, no less!), Agent Markov being TheManBehindTheMan and Mike Whittier foiling his {{plan}} by giving the recording from the bug he planted on him to a Russian general. |
| 261 | * Creator/GuillermoDelToro [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_del_Toro%27s_unrealized_projects has a load of unrealized projects]]. |
| 262 | * In 1998, ''Film/HouseOfTheDead'' was reported as being produced by Creator/DreamWorksSKG with Music/BobDylan's son as director... Instead, we get Uwe Boll. |
| 263 | * Creator/WimWenders' ''Film/WingsOfDesire'' was originally going to end with Cassiel also becoming human...and joining Damiel and Marion for a big pie fight. This is for the better, since a wacky pie fight would be a strange way to end a film that isn't at all a comedy. [[Film/DrStrangelove Speaking of films that originally ended with a pie fight...]] |
| 264 | * ''Film/TwoHundredMotels'', Music/FrankZappa's intended fantasy about the things that can make a band go crazy during a tour, had a series of troubles during the production, finishing with only a third of the script filmed. A new plot was made in the editing room with the material gathered, and was released in 1971. |
| 265 | ** Also by Zappa, was 1969 project ''Uncle Meat'', which was aborted in an even earlier stage of production. A direct-to-video release in 1987 gathered the little that was filmed, including behind the scenes and footage of live concerts with spoken and musical material that were to be worked upon in the film. Although the movie project remained in obscurity, the soundtrack was released in 1969 and is regarded by fans as a high point in Zappa's career. |
| 266 | * ''Film/VilenessFats'', an abandoned project of avant-garde multimedia band Music/TheResidents, had only two-thirds of an unfinished script filmed. Two condensed versions were released, in 1984 and 2001. The story dealt with the war between the village of Vileness Fats and the Atomic Shopping Carts. |
| 267 | * Extensive changes were made from the early scripts of ''Film/HellraiserBloodline''. A notable one being that Angelique was supposed to be served by a troupe of [[MonsterClown demon clowns]], leading to a sort of OrderVersusChaos dynamic between her and the Cenobites. The movie kept one scene from this, [[TheArtifact in which Cenobite Angelique admires her human form in a mirror]]. Other changes include the fates of characters, and an added backstory for the Twin Cenobite, who's origin was left unknown in the original script. By and large, the script was far more well received by the fans then the movie itself. |
| 268 | * For ''Film/CrouchingTigerHiddenDragon'', Creator/AngLee originally wanted Creator/JetLi for Chow Yun-Fat's role and Creator/ShuQi for Creator/ZhangZiyi's. Creator/JetLi turned it down due to his wife's pregnancy, Creator/ShuQi was pulled out of the film by her manager - to do a Coca Cola commercial, no less. |
| 269 | * ''Film/SmokeyAndTheBandit Part 3'' was shot as ''Smokey IS the Bandit'', with Jackie Gleason's Sheriff Buford T. Justice taking up the Enos' latest bet and thus being the character on the run from the law. This proved so confusing for test audiences that the film was reshot, adding Jerry Reed's character to the cast as a conventional substitute for [[Creator/BurtReynolds the Bandit]] (who only appeared in a cameo), and from there retitled. A long-standing misconception is that Gleason played two separate characters in the original cut, but the director has debunked this (as discussed by film critic Drew [=McWeeny=] in the ''80s All Over'' podcast episode covering August 1983). |
| 270 | * ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'': Who wants to try imagining Creator/AdamSandler as the Bear Jew, Creator/SimonPegg or Creator/TimRoth as Lt. Archie Hicox, and/or Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio as [[ColonelBadass Col.]] [[MagnificentBastard Hans]] [[{{Omniglot}} Landa]]? Hard, isn't it? |
| 271 | * ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', as directed and written by [[Film/PulpFiction Roger Avary]] with aid from the guys who went on to write ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean''. The original script blended ''Preludes and Nocturnes'' and ''A Doll's House'' with the meeting of the Endless that opens ''Season of Mists'', so you have Morpheus trying to reclaim the symbols of his office while trying to stop The Corinthian from using Rose Walker to take over the Dreaming. Then Jon Peters (yup, that guy again) got his hands on the script, and tried to insert, among other things: Morpheus in tights; Morpheus talking even ''more'' pretentiously than he already does; Morpheus engaging The Corinthian in ''hand-to-hand combat''; and that damned mechanical spider. Gaiman took one look at the script after Peters was done with it, declared it a work on unparalleled crap, and the film has rested in DevelopmentHell ever since. |
| 272 | * The feature film version of ''Film/WhosAfraidOfVirginiaWoolf?'' was projected to star Creator/JamesMason as George and Creator/BetteDavis as Martha, which would have made the famous "What a dump!" scene that much more deliciously ironic[[labelnote:*]]Bette Davis spoke the line herself in the 1949 movie ''Beyond the Forest''[[/labelnote]]. The then-very-hot couple of Creator/RichardBurton and Creator/ElizabethTaylor professed interest in the project and the original casting was scrapped. |
| 273 | * ''Film/IAmLegend'' initially began development as a project for Ridley Scott to direct and would have starred Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger and Creator/JenniferConnelly. Due to budget reasons, this version never happened and instead we got the Will Smith version. |
| 274 | ** Also, in 1957, Creator/RichardMatheson himself wrote an adaptation of the novel under the title ''The Night Creatures'' for Hammer Films. The project died when both the BBFC and the MPAA told Hammer that a film based on Matheson's script would never be passed. The script was sold, and eventually became the Vincent Price film ''Film/TheLastManOnEarth''. The title was later applied to the U.S, release of ''Film/CaptainClegg''. |
| 275 | ** There were plans for a sequel, where Will Smith was to return as the clone of his character. |
| 276 | * ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'' was initially envisioned as a much darker and more violent film, with the Gremlins actually EATING people alive, and no good mogwai like Gizmo. The first draft (which Creator/JoeDante never even read) had the main characters as prepubescent children, Creator/StevenSpielberg had that changed because he found that to be too similar to ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial''. You can read the second draft [[http://www.horrorlair.com/movies/gremlins.html Here]]. |
| 277 | ** Creator/StanWinston got offered the opportunity to do the visual effects for ''ET'', but declined. He would regret doing so. |
| 278 | * [[https://hollywoodlife.com/2010/09/23/twilight-saga-almost-turned-into-action-film-summit-paramount-robert-pattinson-kristen-stewart-stephenie-meyer-mark-morgan/ This article]] explains what Paramount Pictures had in mind for ''Film/{{Twilight}}'' the movie, since they originally picked up the rights to it. Their script versions changed Bella from a clumsy {{damsel|InDistress}} to an ActionGirl track star who became a vampire in the ''first'' movie rather than the final movie. In some versions, her dad also died. The studio also wanted to focus more on action elements to pull in a male audience. (In their words, the book was just becoming popular at the time, and they didn't think it had the fan base to sell the love story alone). So they added a Korean FBI agent who hunted vampires and SWAT officers and vampires fighting each other in the woods. Stephanie Meyer was understandably not pleased. Paramount lost interest and Summit Entertainment picked it up and made a more faithful-to-the-book adaptation. One can't help but wonder why Paramount didn't just make their own vampire movie instead of bothering to get the rights to Twilight with the intention of [[InNameOnly changing everything]] |
| 279 | ** Creator/ChrisColumbus almost directed the first ''Twilight'' film. This would have resulted in the ''Film/HarryPotter'' and ''Twilight'' movie franchises both being started by the same man. |
| 280 | ** Creator/JenniferLawrence auditioned for the role of Bella but lost to Creator/KristenStewart. Four years later she would star in another YoungAdult [[TheFilmOfTheBook film of the book]], ''Film/TheHungerGames'', which were not only bigger box office hits, but lack the negative stigmas of ''Twilight'' that continue to hound Kristen Stewart. |
| 281 | * Creator/SamuelLJackson auditioned for the role of Mr. Orange's contact in ''Film/ReservoirDogs''. There was also a point during the preproduction for ''Film/PulpFiction'' when he was nearly replaced in the part of Jules by Phil Calderon (who went on to play Paul the bartender). Jackson got wind of the possibility, went back and re-auditioned, cementing himself as Jules. |
| 282 | * Originally, ''Film/Jaws3D'' was supposed to be a parody, done by Film/NationalLampoon, called ''Jaws 3: People 0'', with a shark killing off all people linked to ''Jaws'', starting with Creator/PeterBenchley in a swimming pool. Creator/StevenSpielberg himself squashed the production by threatening to never work with Universal again if they went through with production. |
| 283 | * When ''Film/{{Grease}}'' became a huge hit, there were plans for at least three sequels and a TV series. However, when ''Film/{{Grease 2}}'' [[{{Sequelitis}} bombed]], these plans were scrapped. |
| 284 | ** Years before the existing ''Film/{{Grease}}'' film came to be, Creator/RalphBakshi and Steve Krantz had acquired the rights and had wanted to do an animated version of the musical. After their partnership fell through, the film rights were passed to Allan Carr. |
| 285 | ** Porn star Harry Reems (of ''Deep Throat'' fame) secured the role of Coach Calhoun (a role he'd played in the stage version). The producers, worried Reems' infamy would hurt the box office, replaced him with Creator/SidCaesar. |
| 286 | ** The script for ''Grease 3'' ended up seeing life over 20 years later... as ''Film/HighSchoolMusical''. |
| 287 | * In the [=DVD=] special features for ''Film/FreddyVsJason'', it's mentioned that the writers had, not too seriously, considered ending the film with a scene of both of its superstar killers in Hell, charging at each other in a rage ... only to be ensnared in chains, and confronted by Pinhead from the ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'' films, saying: "Gentlemen, is there a problem?" This one never even got past the level of a production-crew joke, as New Line never had the rights to ''Hellraiser'' or its characters, but still rates a mention as a WhatCouldHaveBeen. |
| 288 | ** One of the sequel ideas involved the two teaming up to fight ''[[Franchise/{{Halloween}} Michael Myers]]''. The other involved [[Franchise/EvilDead Ash]] joining the fray (this would later be done in [[ComicBook/FreddyVsJasonVsAsh comic book format]]). |
| 289 | ** Special effects artist ''Creator/RobBottin'' was going to direct the film in 1997 in what would have been his directorial debut, and had tested his version of Freddy Krueger's makeup on Creator/RobertEnglund. |
| 290 | * [[http://www.angelfire.com/film/unmadekaiju/ This website]] has a huge amount of unmade Kaiju films on it. some are interesting like ''King Kong Vs. Frankenstein'' and Ray Harryhausen's unmade film ''Force of the Trojans'' makes one nostalgic for the greatness that never was. |
| 291 | * ''Film/TheLawnmowerMan'': The association with Creator/StephenKing's short story was added to a script titled ''Cyber God''. Had it remained its own movie, it may have had a different response than being known as a bad adaptation of a short story. |
| 292 | * Creator/StanleyKubrick had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Kubrick%27s_unrealized_projects several unrealized projects]], most notably ''Napoleon''. Said to be the greatest film never made, there was a whole coffee table book about it. |
| 293 | * Creator/FrancisFordCoppola could-have-beens: ''Megalopolis'', about an architect who tries to bring about Utopia in New York, supposedly after some great disaster, was one. Another would have been a ''Pinocchio'' adaptation. |
| 294 | * Creator/DavidLynch has had a few projects that turned out like this, including his followup to ''Film/{{Eraserhead}}'', ''Ronnie Rocket'', and the film ''One Saliva Bubble''. |
| 295 | * Anybody curious about what would have happened if Creator/AynRand's unmade film ''Red Pawn'' about a woman trying to free a prisoner from Soviet Russia were ever made? |
| 296 | * Music/GiorgioMoroder won rights to produce his '80s pop-music version of ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'', outbidding Music/DavidBowie. |
| 297 | * The original protagonist in the screenplay for Gregg Bishop's ''Dance of the Dead'' was not Jimmy, but a troubled girl named Lucy who was going to move into town at the beginning of the film, and the zombie epidemic was going to be one more example of trouble that followed her. On the first day of shooting, the girl meant to play Lucy walked onto the set and told the filmmakers she didn't want to do it anymore, forcing them to completely write her out of the story completely. As explained on the DVD commentary, they didn't know it at the time, but this was a blessing in disguise, because once they started shooting the film as we currently have it, they realized the character of Lucy completely sucked. |
| 298 | * ''Film/OldSchool'' was originally written to be a comedic parody of ''Film/FightClub''. However, the studio decided that film wasn't well known enough (at the time the script was written, the film was only known as a box office flop) and instead became more of a film in the vein of ''Film/AnimalHouse'' and the director's previous film ''Film/RoadTrip''. However, some pieces of the original script remain in the final film (such as Luke Wilson's character never having to pay for anything at the local diner). |
| 299 | * There are several horror movies that never were on [[http://web.archive.org/web/20090204013853/http://omghorror.blogfaction.com/article/101788/feature-the-15-greatest-horror-movies-that-never-were/ this list]], some of which have been mentioned here, but amongst those that haven't: |
| 300 | ** A sequel to the bizarre horror film ''Society'', supposedly giving greater detail on the society of [[spoiler: old-money, blue-blood shape-shifting monsters]] |
| 301 | ** Kalidescope, an Creator/AlfredHitchcock film about a serial killer that was supposed to be made with all new filmmaking techniques |
| 302 | ** Two sequels to Creator/PeterJackson's ''Film/BadTaste''! |
| 303 | ** ''House of Reanimator'', a sequel to the ''Film/ReAnimator'' series that has a plot involving ''Herbert West re-animating the effing Vice President of the USA!'' |
| 304 | ** The Creator/StevenSpielberg film ''Night Skies'', a film about alien scientists tormenting a farmer's family and mutilating their livestock, which evolved into ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' when Spielberg wanted to do something less dark (the dark elements gelled into ''Film/{{Poltergeist|1982}}''), and latched onto a subplot about a friendly one of the aliens befriending the family's child to build a movie around. Supposedly Creator/RickBaker made a really cool special effects model for one of the aliens, but there appears to be no pictures of it around. |
| 305 | *** Creator/ColumbiaPictures was supposed to distribute ''Night Skies'' given their work with Spielberg on ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'' (they wanted Spielberg to do a sequel on that film, which Spielberg declined, yet at the same time Spielberg fretted about Columbia doing a sequel without him), but lost faith when Spielberg decided to change course and put the film in turnaround. MCA head Sid Sheinberg, through Universal, then bought the project from Columbia and worked out a deal where Columbia got 5% of ''E.T.''[='=]s box office profits. Columbia's then-president would go on to say that [[IdiotBall they had made more money on that film]] [[EpicFail than any of their releases that year]]. |
| 306 | * Creator/HowardStern was going to originally make a Fartman movie, which supposedly had a pretty good script, but the deal fell apart over the fact that Stern didn't want to relinquish the merchandising rights. |
| 307 | * [[http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/14201/Films-that-never-saw-the-light-of-day?page=1 This topic]] has an excellent overview of some great SF films never made. Notable ones include: |
| 308 | ** Several unmade sequels to ''Film/TheAbominableDrPhibes'' |
| 309 | ** Several unmade Creator/EdWood movies, including ''Ghouls On The Moon'', ''The Day The Mummies Danced'', ''Beach Blanket Bloodbath'', ''Dr. Ackula'', ''The Ghoul Goes West'', and two pilots for his TV show. |
| 310 | ** Creator/GeorgeRomero's ''Literature/TheStand'' |
| 311 | ** Film/HammerHorror's ''Vampirella'' |
| 312 | ** Screaming Room Only, a film about a psychic, tormented teenager who psychically manifests various monsters against his tormentors. |
| 313 | ** A cracked-out horror film called ''Bloody Twilight'' starring Creator/JohnCarradine and Creator/LonChaneyJr as themselves (Although in this film Carradine is literally a real vampire, and Chaney a real werewolf), hypnotizing hippies to kill directors they felt had wronged them. |
| 314 | ** A {{Macekre}} of'' Godzilla's Counterattack'' called ''The Volcano Monsters'' with all new footage for the human actors and the story partially set in Chinatown to explain all the Asian architecture. Godzilla and Angirus would have been turned into an ordinary T-Rex and Anklyosaur. |
| 315 | ** Creator/CharlieChaplin's ''The Freak'', a dramatic comedy about a young South American girl who unexpectedly sprouts a pair of wings. She is kidnapped and taken to London, where her captors cash in by passing her off as an angel. Later she escapes, only to be arrested because of her appearance. She is further dehumanized by standing trial to determine if she is human at all. It would have starred his daughter Victoria. |
| 316 | ** ''Choice Cuts'', a film about a guy cut up to provide parts for Vietnam Veterans who's head was preserved by a mad scientist. Due to a tumor he can control these parts from a distance and inducing their holders to kill. At some point in the movie the guys' girlfriend would have found his head and taken it to recover all his parts. |
| 317 | *** A similar film titled ''Body Parts'' based on the same source material (the Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac novel ''Et mon tout est un homme'') was released in 1991. |
| 318 | * Apparently the short that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjQgUiJJkrA this trailer]] is for, about a man with an ice cream cone for a head on the run from the mob, apparently was going to be made into a movie, called ''Swirlee''. It was supposed to be fairly serious, described as "''ComicStrip/DickTracy'' and ''Film/EdwardScissorhands'' meets ''Film/MeanStreets''". But, unfortunately, the execs didn't get it and wanted to make it a kids movie. And thus it stayed unmade. |
| 319 | * Charles Band has a [[http://www.freewebs.com/demonictoys/thetomb.htm huge amount of these.]] Most notably, there was proposed an epic three-part ''Film/PuppetMaster'' trilogy where the puppets would fight the Mummy, Dracula, and Frankenstein's monster. |
| 320 | * Creator/ChristopherNolan initially thought of ''Film/{{Inception}}'' as a horror film, before deciding to turn it into a heist movie. The shade haunting Cobb throughout the film was originally going to be his business parter, but Nolan changed it to his wife since he felt that created a stronger emotional connection between the two. He also saw it as a small, low budget affair but [[EpicMovie we all know how well that turned out.]] |
| 321 | ** Nolan's initial casting choices were also interesting. Creator/JamesFranco for Arthur, Creator/EvanRachelWood, Creator/EmilyBlunt, Creator/RachelMcAdams, Creator/EmmaRoberts, JessySchram, Music/TaylorSwift and Creator/CareyMulligan for Ariadne, Creator/BradPitt and Creator/WillSmith for Cobb, Creator/KateWinslet for Mal. |
| 322 | * ''Film/StreetFighter'': |
| 323 | ** Writer and director Steven E. de Souza originally planned to have a smaller, more manageable cast that would've only used seven characters from [[VideoGame/StreetFighterII the game]]. The representatives from Creator/{{Capcom}} initially agreed to this, but later changed their minds and forced him to include eight other fighters from the game. |
| 324 | ** Capcom wanted Japanese actor Kenya Sawada to play Ryu, but the director wanted someone with comedic chops and a better grasp of the English language. The character of [[TheDanza Captain Sawada]] was written into the movie specifically for Kenya as a compromise. |
| 325 | ** Many of the fight scenes had to be edited to remove blood and gore after the MPAA complained. This included a death scene for Vega, who was supposed to die after being impaled on his own claws. |
| 326 | * The 1984 comedy ''Film/{{Best Defense|1984}}'' with Creator/DudleyMoore and Creator/EddieMurphy originally only starred Moore. When it tested poorly, they filmed extra scenes featuring Murphy (he doesn't interact with any of the other characters -- his scenes are set two years later) and inserted them in, hoping it would attract people to the film. Unfortunately, the movie was blasted by critics and was a flop with audiences. |
| 327 | ** They did shoot a scene where Dudley's and Eddie's characters meet (as shown in [[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086955/mediaviewer/rm148580608/ these]] [[https://www.blogdehollywood.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Best-Defense-1984-comedy-Dudely-Moore-Eddie-Murphy-702x395.jpg publicity]] [[https://c8.alamy.com/comp/K3618H/best-defense-dudley-moore-eddie-murphy-date-1984-K3618H.jpg stills]]), but it was deleted from the final cut. |
| 328 | * Amongst the most famous is Creator/PeterJackson's aborted ''Franchise/{{HALO}}'' film. Neill Blomkamp was to direct it, and when it fell through, Jackson gave Blomkamp $30 million to go make a feature version of his short film "Alive in Joburg". The result was ''Film/{{District 9}}'', making it a case where WhatCouldHaveBeen still resulted in something awesome. |
| 329 | * ''Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangersTheMovie'' had a number of things planned out both before and during filming (see [[http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Mighty-Morphin-Power-Rangers-The-Movie.html here]] for an early draft): |
| 330 | ** Before the usage of CGI and the armored suits, it was planned to be done in the style of the main series, something that would be done in ''[[Series/PowerRangersTurbo Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie]]''. |
| 331 | ** The helmets were originally molded without the visors and faceplates, allowing them to show off emotions. This quickly got scuttled when they realized they were not supposed to do that sort of thing, and that footage shot without the visors looked ''awful''. |
| 332 | ** The Oozemen were originally just rats, but the costumes were so horrible, they got scuttled as well. The rat costumes turned up in the TV series, as part of a small number of episodes filmed in Australia (the movie's filming location) when filming on the movie overran and started eating into the series' shooting schedule. |
| 333 | ** Originally, when Ivan Ooze zapped the Tengu Warriors, they were supposed to turn into the Tengu Queen, who'd return to Phaedos and attack the Rangers again. This didn't happen, but the character of the Tengu Queen was used for the UsefulNotes/GameBoy game. |
| 334 | ** Cathrine Sutherland, who'd go on to play Kathrine "Kat" Hillard in the series proper, auditioned for the part of Dulcea. |
| 335 | ** There was a scene filmed where the Rangers, after getting their Ninjetti powers, train to get used to them before going off to get the Great Power. This scene was dropped after the shuffling around of who was playing Dulcea. |
| 336 | ** When the Rangers get to the temple of the Great Power and enter it, they were supposed to use the crests on their ninja uniforms to reflect back the light and activate the powers, with a brief moment of Kimberly using her crest to check herself over. This was replaced with the battle against the stone gatekeepers. |
| 337 | ** Zordon's revival was ''supposed'' to be before the final fight with Ivan, but was swapped around in the final version. The UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis game version keeps the original order. |
| 338 | ** After leaving ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' midway through season two, Austin St. John, Walter Jones and Thuy Trang had planned to appear in several films in the mid-1990s, including ''Cyberstrike'', ''Act of Courage'', and ''Children of Merlin'', the latter of which was to be developed by Landmark Entertainment Group. None of the three films were ultimately made. Additionally, Trang was expected to appear in a film called ''The Adventures of Tracie Z'', which also never came to fruition. |
| 339 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHlwzVqFNCA This 1996 trailer]] for ''Blue Planet'' (Not to be confused with the BBC documentary series ''THE Blue Planet''), a planned animated movie by then Rainbow Studios (now Creator/{{THQ}}), with a console game tie-in. The studio was unable to put together the funding; and the existing animation sequences were incorporated into the game, which was released as ''VideoGame/DeadlyTide''. For a while after the film project was dropped, a number of fans created a (now defunct) website called savetheblueplanet.com to try and drum up enough support to get the film made. The trailer developed a large fanbase, mainly for its opening sequence TakeThat at Disney/Pixar films ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory1'' and ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'', and use of Music/RobZombie's "More Human Than Human" as the soundtrack. |
| 340 | * Creator/AlejandroJodorowsky and Music/MarilynManson were planning to team up on a sequel to ''Film/ElTopo'' called ''Abelcain'', which was supposed to be ready for a 2005 release. However, budget problems and a lawsuit with ''El Topo'''s American distributor Allan Klein over royalties and sequel rights caused the project to get delayed and later canceled. The lawsuit was eventually settled and ''El Topo'' got a DVD release in 2007. |
| 341 | * In ''Film/MenInBlack'', the Arquillians subplot was originally going to involve the Baltians, a rival alien race that was going to return a galaxy to the Arquillians as a sign of peace. Scenes from this version of the film can be seen in the "Metamorphosis of [=MiB=]" featurette on the DVD. |
| 342 | * Originally, ''Film/RobinHood2010'' was supposed to have been a film called ''Nottingham'', which have had the Sheriff of Nottingham as the main protagonist instead of Robin Hood. The plot would have essentially been the Sheriff investigating a series of murders in Nottingham, with Robin Hood as the main culprit. Robin Hood himself would be a {{Jerkass}}, but ultimately innocent and being framed, and the film's climax would have been the city being sieged by the armies of both Prince John and King Richard as the Sheriff desperately tried to find the identity of the killer. And the Sheriff would have done this using [[ShownTheirWork actual 12th century crime investigation techniques]]. However, when Ridley Scott was signed on as director [[ExecutiveMeddling he played with making Robin and the Sheriff the same person, then changed the story completely]] into a origin story involving a French invasion and the Magna Carta. |
| 343 | * At one point, Creator/AlanRickman was being considered for the lead role in ''Film/FourWeddingsAndAFuneral''. The writer, Richard Curtis, fought for him, but in the end it was decided he was too old for the part. |
| 344 | ** Jeanne Tripplehorn was originally cast as Carrie, but had to back out for personal reasons. Creator/MelanieGriffith and Creator/BrookeShields were both offered the part, but turned it down. |
| 345 | ** Creator/RowanAtkinson's part was nearly done by Creator/MichaelSheen, since the producers were worried about it being TheCameo. |
| 346 | * ''Advise and Consent'' almost had Dr. UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr cast as a senator from Georgia. |
| 347 | * Creator/PeterJackson was asked to write a script for what would have been the sixth ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'' film: Playing off the franchise's perceived {{Sequelitis}}, his idea would have started out with a weakened Freddy Krueger who no one takes seriously anymore, to the point where teens made a game of deliberately going to the dream world to beat him up. Once Freddy does start gaining power again, the main plot is kicked off by a boy having to enter the dream world to rescue his father. This script was never used and we got ''Film/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare'' instead... But the general concept of Freddy needing to regain strength because no one believed in him anymore was a plot point in ''Film/FreddyVsJason''. |
| 348 | ** Creator/WesCraven had proposed the concept of Freddy invading the real world and coming after people who were working on a ''Nightmare on Elm Street'' sequel back when they were starting to develop the [[Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet3DreamWarriors third movie]]: Much later he used the same basic idea for ''Film/WesCravensNewNightmare''. |
| 349 | *** Speaking about ''Film/WesCravensNewNightmare'', Wes Craven wanted Creator/JohnnyDepp to make a cameo but didn't ask him since he was working on ''Film/EdWood'' at the time. After the film was released, Craven bumped into Depp and told him about it. Depp said he would have done it if Craven had asked. |
| 350 | ** In 2008, French filmmakers Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo pitched their vision for a reboot. According to the team, their idea "was to really use the fact that Krueger is a child molester," and to have the new gang getting terrorized by Freddy be a group of actual children straight out of an '80s Spielberg movie, like a "twisted version" of ''Film/TheGoonies''. |
| 351 | ** John Saxon (Nancy Thompson's dad) pitched a prequel to the franchise set in 1969, when Nancy is five years old and Freddy is still alive. The new story focused on Betsy, Nancy's previously unmentioned stepsister, becoming "caught up in the hippie movement" and getting murdered along with some of the other neighborhood teens. Freddy would have been captured and subjected to a vilgilante execution, only for it to be revealed that the true murderer was none other than Charles Manson. |
| 352 | * Creator/RobertAltman had a few movies that never got made due to other circumstances. The first was ''Wild Card'', which was a baseball comedy with Creator/BillMurray as a pitcher trying to lead his team into the then-new Wild Card spot in the MLB Playoffs. The project got scrapped days before filming was to start due to a president change at MGM and the new president feeling the film was too expensive. The second was a film called ''Paint'', which was a comedy about an art heist and the suspects in the robbery. This was set to start filming in early 2004 but Altman contracted cancer (which he eventually passed away from in 2006) and the film had to be canceled. |
| 353 | * In the early 1990's, two adaptations of ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'' were in the works. [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1993 The first one]] (by Creator/{{Disney}}) was completed and released in 1993. The second one (by Creator/TristarPictures) was canceled in pre-production due to the other film. Who was attached to play D'Artagnan in this version? None other than Creator/JohnnyDepp. |
| 354 | * Creator/HarrisonFord: |
| 355 | ** He was Creator/StephenKing's personal choice to play Jack Torrance in ''Film/TheShining''. Before casting Jack Nicholson, Creator/StanleyKubrick had also considered Creator/RobertDeNiro and Creator/RobinWilliams. |
| 356 | ** Ford was also almost cast as the lead in Kubrick's ''Film/EyesWideShut''. |
| 357 | * ''Franchise/{{Saw}}''. There were originally supposed to be eight films. Thankfully, because of ''Film/SawVI'''s lackluster box office draw and ExecutiveMeddling, what would have been films ''VII'' and ''VIII'' were combined into ''Film/Saw3D''. |
| 358 | * Early attempts to adapt ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'' to film were a lot more... surreal than what was eventually produced, and included such things as the various government agencies (the Eye, the Finger, etc) being based out of buildings shaped like the organs they were named after, Britain reduced to 1880s-level technology, and the fingermen being mutated, satyr-like creatures. |
| 359 | * In the late '90s, [[Creator/MaxAndDaveFleischer Max Fleischer's]] son Richard "Dick" Fleischer worked on a full-length WesternAnimation/BettyBoop movie. A prequel following Betty's rise to fame in the Golden Age of Hollywood, it would have had legendary Broadway star Creator/BernadettePeters voicing Betty, and it would have introduced Betty's estranged father Benny Boop into official canon. It was eventually cancelled due to a change in management at MGM, but some of the music and storyboards can be seen [[http://www.moorestudiosinc.com/bettyboop.htm here]]. |
| 360 | * According to some accounts, following the success of ''Film/MrDeedsGoesToTown'', Creator/FrankCapra planned a sequel, in which Mr. Deeds would find himself involved in politics. However, Gary Cooper wasn't available to reprise the role, so Mr. Deeds became [[Film/MrSmithGoesToWashington Mr. Smith]]. |
| 361 | * After their great success in ''Film/MaryPoppins'', Creator/JulieAndrews and Creator/DickVanDyke were to be reunited in a film version of the wonderful Broadway musical ''She Loves Me''. Alas, a series of big-budget musical flops (not least among them Andrews' ''Star!'') resulted in the project being cancelled. |
| 362 | * ''Film/AmericanBeauty'' had a strange dream sequence where Lester imagines he is flying cut late into production. A much more significant change completely altered the film's point of view: the film originally would have begun and ended with Ricky and Jane on trial for [[spoiler:Lester's murder]]. |
| 363 | * ''Nosebleed'' was a film that had its production started in 2001 where a World Trade Center window washer, played by Creator/JackieChan, foils a terrorist plot. The film got scrapped [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents for obvious reasons]]. |
| 364 | * In 2006, Icon Productions said that it would adapt the book ''[[Literature/GemmaDoyle A Great and Terrible Beauty]]'' by Libba Bray into a movie. However, for whatever reason Icon relinquished the rights to the film and it will not be made in the foreseeable future. |
| 365 | * The musical DreamSequence in ''Carefree'' was supposed to be filmed in Technicolor. This explains the song title, "I Used To Be Colorblind." |
| 366 | * ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' was the communal property of American Zoetrope; it was heavily developed by Creator/GeorgeLucas, who wanted to direct it. However Creator/FrancisFordCoppola overruled him and took it for himself. One cannot help but wonder how different George Lucas's career would've been if he'd spent those months of hell in the Philippines instead of Coppola. |
| 367 | ** Of course, the idea was much older, originally having been shot during the 60s, on location in Vietnam in 16mm using real soldiers (and a real war), but this was scrapped, partly for safety reasons. Lucas had also made the film differently with Milius, with the ending being a scene where Willard and Kurtz defend themselves from an attack using a machine gun which Kurtz manned. |
| 368 | ** In addition, at the start of shooting, the role of Willard was played by Creator/HarveyKeitel. He was sacked after a week of shooting and replaced by Creator/MartinSheen. This one event basically stopped Keitel's career in its tracks, and it wasn't until ''Film/ReservoirDogs'' that he finally started to get the attention of audiences and film makers. |
| 369 | * There were once plans for a sequel to ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'', written by none other than Music/NickCave. And [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/may/06/nick-cave-rejected-gladiator-script what wonderfully batshit plans they would have been]], with Maximus finding himself before the Roman gods (who are [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly slowly dying]]), getting resurrected, and fighting to protect the persecuted Christians. Also, he'd be immortal, and the film would show him fighting throughout history, ending with him in the halls of the Pentagon. |
| 370 | ** There was originally going to be a scene where Commodus has the entire Roman Senate and his own sister executed via Brazen Bull. |
| 371 | * There were plans in TheSeventies to adapt ''Theatre/PromisesPromises'', the Broadway musical version of ''Film/TheApartment'', [[RecursiveAdaptation into a movie]]. The plans got as far as Music/BurtBacharach and Hal David writing [[MovieBonusSong additional songs for it]]; one of them, "Seconds", would be recorded by Music/DionneWarwick. |
| 372 | * Creator/SammyDavisJr wanted to play Bill the candy store owner in ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'', but the filmmakers dismissed the idea as "kitschy", so the part went to Aubrey Woods instead. Davis then covered "The Candy Man", and thus the song he ''would'' have sung in the film ended up [[CoveredUp being strongly associated with him]] anyway. |
| 373 | * The original ''Film/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' film was closer in tone to the television series. But Creator/JossWhedon was just a scriptwriter then, and after the script was sold, the film was changed so much that even the creator said "TheyChangedItNowItSucks". There's been talk for a few years now of a remake of the film, but Whedon wouldn't be involved much and no TV series characters would appear. This is because of a legal mish-mash made by the selling of the film script-the film is owned by the people who originally bought the script, but the series is still owned by Whedon and 20th Century Fox. Neither the actors or the fanbase were happy at all about it. Fortunately, it appears to have been shelved for now. |
| 374 | * ''Film/HighlanderTheSource'' went through many script rewrites and a director change during its production. In its earliest stage, director of the [[Film/{{Highlander}} original film]] Russell Mulcahy was supposed to do the film, and it was to be a {{Prequel}}. |
| 375 | * The original 1986 ''Film/{{Highlander}}'' was massively different between the original vision and the final film: |
| 376 | ** The original story was quite a bit DarkerAndEdgier than the final film in some respects. Connor was born in 1408 instead of 1518, and lived with his mother and father. He was promised to a young girl named Mara who he loved with all his heart but she rejected him when she found out he was immortal (aspects of this character remain in the film with his his crazy redheaded girlfriend who wanted him burned); he never met Heather and got HappilyMarried with her, as her character didn't exist at all in the original script. His alias in his immortal life was Richard Tupin and his used a variety of swords rather than just the katana he took after Ramirez's death in the film. Ramirez really was Spanish rather than a millennia-old Egyptian styling himself as a Spaniard. And Immortals actually could have children; in the draft, Connor was stated to have 37 with a number of different women over the centuries. |
| 377 | ** The Kurgan was a man known as the Knight (going by the alias Carl Smith) and rather than an AxCrazy Russian barbarian dressed as a biker who [[LivingForeverIsAwesome used his immortal life as an excuse to]] RapePillageAndBurn over centuries, he was envisioned as very much the opposite - a steely killer in a suit and bowler hat who was massively depressed and only fought in The Game because it was the only reason he had to keep living after thousands of years. |
| 378 | ** Sunda Kastigir had a much bigger role in the original script, and was envisioned as a Mongolian or Chinese Immortal who used a [[DualWielding pair of swords]] to fight. This character was de-composited into Kastigir and Kim, a Korean Immortal who never appeared in the final film as the footage with his scene was sadly destroyed in a fire. |
| 379 | ** The film's final showdown between Connor and the Kurgan was originally planned to take place in (perhaps fittingly) a history museum. Other ideas included an amusement park and ''atop the head of the Statue of Liberty''. |
| 380 | ** Creator/KurtRussell was originally cast to play Connor, but he turned down the role on the advice of his girlfriend Creator/GoldieHawn. Creator/SeanConnery was also considered for Connor but he expressed more interest in the character of Ramirez, and was given that role. Bizarrely, Wrestling/HulkHogan was offered the role of Connor as well (he refused, citing a focus on his wrestling career). |
| 381 | ** Creator/MichaelCaine, Creator/PeterOToole, Creator/MalcolmMcDowell, Creator/ClintEastwood, Creator/GeneHackman and Creator/LeeVanCleef were all considered for the role of Ramirez. |
| 382 | ** Creator/VirginiaMadsen auditioned unsuccessfully for the role of Heather Macleod (the role was given to young English actress Beatie Edney). Madsen came back to play Connor's love interest in the sequel. |
| 383 | * The original version of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000: [[Film/ThisIslandEarth The Movie]]'' would have been an origin movie showing how Joel Robinson got captured and tossed up on the Satellite of Love, but fights with an executive working with the movie led creator Joel Hodgson to leave ''[=MST3K=]'' halfway through season 5. |
| 384 | ** There was a fifth host segment that was lopped out for some unknown reason. The host segment would've had an asteroid hit the Satellite of Love, damaging the air supply. Not a big deal, but Mike Nelson isn't {{Batman|CanBreatheInSpace}}. So, the bots end up springing in to save the day and restore the air to the Satellite. |
| 385 | ** As well, there was an alternate ending to the movie. It would've had Tom distracting Dr. Forrester while Mike, Crow and Gypsy transformed and teleported an ant into Deep 13 as a [=MutAnt=], who strangles Forrestor and knocks him out. At the end, Crow runs off and attempts to finish his dig to Earth using the chainsaw he found in Tom's room, completing a BrickJoke. |
| 386 | ** Two other ideas for the movie that were rejected by the studio were one where a being of pure logic and a being of pure energy meet on the Satellite of Love...and get into a wrestling match, and a cameo appearance by Creator/KimCattrall...in lederhosen. |
| 387 | * The prawns in ''Film/{{District 9}}'' were originally supposed to wear human clothes and other pieces of trash to protect their sensitive skin from the sun. And five different endings were shot, including one where Wikus made it onto the mothership, as did Koobus. |
| 388 | * ''Film/TheOne'' was originally written with [[Creator/DwayneJohnson Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson]] in mind for the role of the inter-dimensional killer and his good double. However, Johnson chose to do ''Film/TheScorpionKing'' instead. When Creator/JetLi signed on to do the film, they rewrote the script and ''removed'' a good number of his lines to leave more room for good old-fashioned "Jet Li asskicking". According to WordOfGod, the Rock doesn't need to speak a lot; Jet Li needs to speak even less. The Jet Li vs. Jet Li fight at the end of the film (with even Creator/JasonStatham not being able to do much in the face of such awesomeness) is likely the only reason to see the movie. Now imagine the Rock vs. the Rock with each giving the other the "eyebrow". |
| 389 | * In the early 1970's, Creator/JerryLewis (of all people) wanted to adapt ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye'' and star as Holden. As with many other attempts at doing the story, he was unable to get the rights. Lewis documents the ordeal in his book ''The Total Film-Maker''. |
| 390 | * Before Creator/StevenSoderbergh was signed on to direct ''Film/MagicMike'', Creator/ChanningTatum wanted Nicolas Winding Refn to direct the film. Refn turned it down due to a busy schedule but you would have more than likely seen a totally different film than Soderbergh's serious semi-biopic on the film's star. |
| 391 | * Creator/ChrisFarley was offered to star in a biography of 1920s comedian Creator/FattyArbuckle. |
| 392 | ** He and Creator/DavidSpade also planned a film version of his ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' character Matt Foley. |
| 393 | ** At the time of his death, Farley had been in talks to costar with Creator/VinceVaughn in ''The Gelfin''. |
| 394 | ** He also planned a biopic of Hermann Goering. |
| 395 | * After Larry Fine suffered a career-ending stroke, Moe Howard asked longtime friend and colleague Emil Sitka to be his replacement. A movie was planned, but fell through after Moe and Emil expressed concern about the film's financing and distribution. A few years later, the Stooges were offered a part in a comedy called ''The Jet Set''. The day after Sitka agreed, Moe died, taking Film/TheThreeStooges with him. The movie was retooled as a softcore comedy with the surviving Ritz Brothers, and retitled ''Blazing Stewardesses''. |
| 396 | * When ''Film/{{Dragonheart}}'' first began production, it was during the time when CGI wasn't that great. This meant that the production team needed other means to make the dragon, so they hired the Creator/JimHenson company to build a dragon puppet. The puppet, or at least parts of it, was actually built, and a version of the campfire scene was actually filmed with it. However, when ''Film/JurassicPark'' was released, the team decided to go with the then-cutting edge CGI used for the dinosaurs. |
| 397 | ** Creator/LiamNeeson was the first choice for the role of Bowen but Universal didn't think he would be a believable action hero, due solely on his performance in ''Film/{{Darkman}}''. So the studio looked at Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, Creator/TomHanks, Creator/HarrisonFord, and Creator/PatrickSwayze as possible alternatives before Creator/DennisQuaid was ultimately cast. Creator/ElizabethHurley and Creator/KennethBranagh were originally going to play the roles of Kara and Einon, the latter even considered directing the film as well as starring in it after original intended director Patrick Read Johnson was let go. |
| 398 | ** Charles Edward Pogue's script went through a number of revisions during production as a part of Universal's goal to make ''Film/{{Dragonheart}}'' a more family-friendly film as opposed to the original vision for it to be a serious and transcendent film. [[{{Literature/Dragonheart}} See the film's novelization page for more info]]. |
| 399 | ** Its sequel ''Dragonheart: A New Beginning'' was a lackluster direct-to-home video ordeal that used a noticeably less advanced rendering system, despite coming out 4 years later when CGI had both improved significantly and dropped in cost. One has to wonder - if they'd cared a bit more, or tried to make a theatrical sequel, how much better would the visuals have been compared to the first? |
| 400 | * In ''Film/BuffaloSoldiers'', the protagonist invites out the daughter of the new boss purely to make her father angry. The father chases them to the club but doesn't make it. This was originally going to be a big car chase, but having run out of budget the father ended up not getting into the club because he's wearing the wrong kind of shoes. |
| 401 | * In 1993, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger told Creator/OprahWinfrey that he rejected out of hand a script that would have had him play a Tooth Fairy. ''Tooth Fairy'' from 2010, starring Wrestling/DwayneJohnson, is likely the end result of the project after 17 years of on and off DevelopmentHell. |
| 402 | * When Creator/JoaquinPhoenix decided to make a return to acting, he was weighing two choices on which film to do. The one he made was ''Film/TheMaster''. The one that he turned down? ''Film/AbrahamLincolnVampireHunter''. Therefore, we very nearly had two famed method actors play Abraham Lincoln in the same year. |
| 403 | * Originally, Creator/SamRockwell was going to reprise his role as ComicBook/{{Batman}} in the sequel to ''Robin's Big Date'' that appears as one of the segments in ''Film/{{Movie 43}}''. For some strange reason, he pulled out and Creator/JasonSudeikis took over. Also, the trademarks were supposed to appear but instead Batman got a shield that simply says "43". |
| 404 | * [[NeverTrustATrailer According to the trailer]] for the 2000 version of ''Film/{{Shaft}}'', there was going to be a fistfight at an airport runway between [[Creator/SamuelLJackson Shaft]] and [[Creator/ChristianBale Wade]]. It was going to happen in the film, but ExecutiveMeddling gave Jeffrey Wright's character Peoples Hernandez the more antagonistic role [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome and the fight didn't make the final cut]]. |
| 405 | * There were several different actors intended to be in the cast of ''Film/DjangoUnchained'': |
| 406 | ** Creator/KevinCostner, Creator/KurtRussell, Creator/JosephGordonLevitt, and Creator/SachaBaronCohen were originally cast before pulling out. Russell even shot some scenes but left due to creative differences (Tarantino was reworking the script during filming and cut much of Russell's character out). |
| 407 | ** Tarantino had originally wanted Creator/WillSmith to play Django. The two of them discussed it a lot, but according to Tarantino the script "wasn't 100 percent right" at the time and after agreeing to wait, he started testing other actors and decided that Jamie Foxx was perfect. In addition, it's been rumored that Smith feared that playing a slave out for revenge against his masters in a hard-R Western would tarnish his clean-cut "good guy" image. |
| 408 | ** Creator/MichaelKWilliams was almost cast as Django, as was Creator/IdrisElba. Creator/ChrisTucker was also in the running. |
| 409 | ** Creator/JonahHill was also intended to have a bigger role, but ended up playing a OneSceneWonder. |
| 410 | * ''The Tony Clifton Story'' was intended as Creator/AndyKaufman's first starring vehicle. Focusing on his AlterEgoActing persona of Tony Clifton, the plot follows Clifton's ascent to stardom when he accosts Kaufman -- portrayed as a NiceCharacterMeanActor -- at a restaurant. Kaufman convinces the LoungeLizard Clifton that he's talented, but promotes him as the SoBadItsGood act he actually is. When Clifton realizes he's a public laughingstock, he runs away...at which point the film cuts to an out-of-character Kaufman explaining to the audience that Clifton died before the third act of the film was shot, so Kaufman will play Clifton (intentionally poorly) for the remainder. In the climactic scene, as faux!Clifton returns from being stranded in the jungle and assumed dead to confront Kaufman at his own funeral, the "actual" Clifton returns to assume control of the film and give everyone a happy ending. This was all a bit much for Universal Pictures at the turn of The80s, and rewrites tried to simplify matters (i.e., the villain became an evil agent who caused trouble for both Kaufman and Clifton). Ultimately, the far more conventional ''Film/{{Heartbeeps}}'' was Kaufman's first lead role in a film; when it bombed, ''The Tony Clifton Story'' was dead in the water. |
| 411 | * Creator/{{Hasbro}} initially tapped Creator/{{Sony}} to release and co-finance the LiveActionAdaptation of ''WesternAnimation/JemAndTheHolograms''. Sony turned down the offer in favor of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017'' [[note]]Which Sony too pulled out of. See [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 that]] for more[[/note]], after which Hasbro reluctantly went to Universal. |
| 412 | * There were plans for a fourth ''Film/TheNakedGun'' movie titled ''Naked Gun 4 Score: And 3 Sequels Ago'' (or possibly ''Naked Gun 5'', just to screw with people more). However, this was shelved when Creator/LeslieNielsen passed away. |
| 413 | * When casting ''Film/TheItalianJob2003'', Creator/JasonStatham was not the producers' first choice for Handsome Rob. Originally they wanted to go with a younger actor with classic movie-star good looks, being "Handsome Rob" and all. Eventually they decided instead to make his attractiveness into more of a state of mind than a purely physical thing, making him not conventionally handsome but still cocky and swaggering enough to make the ladies weak. |
| 414 | * ''Film/TheCannonballRun'': |
| 415 | ** It was originally planned as an action movie starring Creator/SteveMcQueenActor. Unfortunately, he had to turn it down due to being terminally ill with cancer. Creator/BurtReynolds was cast in the lead, and the film was rewritten as a comedy. |
| 416 | ** Reynolds himself only turned to acting after injuries derailed a promising [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball football]] career at Florida State University. |
| 417 | * There were so many proposed actresses to play Cosette and Eponine in ''Film/LesMiserables2012'' including Creator/EmmaWatson, Creator/JessicaBiel, Creator/EvanRachelWood (who actually got the part) for Eponine, and possibly Music/TaylorSwift and Creator/LeaMichele. |
| 418 | * Acclaimed Austrian actor Creator/KlausMariaBrandauer was originally cast as Captain Marko Ramius in ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober''. He had been fitted for costumes and had attended several rehearsals when he was in an accident and broke both of his legs. Unable to proceed with filming, it was he who suggested that Creator/SeanConnery replace him. There is no doubt whatsoever that had Brandauer been able to continue, the movie would have had a very different feel. |
| 419 | * Before the legendarily bad Creator/RogerCorman-produced ''Film/TheFantasticFour'', there were plans on making a film starting the ComicBook/HumanTorch. This is the main reason why the Torch didn't show up in ''WesternAnimation/TheFantasticFour1978'' cartoon. |
| 420 | * ''Film/TowerHeist'' originally started as a 2005 movie concept from Creator/EddieMurphy in which he would lead an ensemble black comedian cast as a group of disgruntled employees who would rob UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and the Trump Tower, affectionately titled ''Trump Heist''. Aside from Murphy himself, the cast included Creator/ChrisTucker, Creator/DaveChappelle, Creator/KevinHart, Creator/TracyMorgan, and Creator/MartinLawrence; and at a later point swapped out the latter three with Creator/ChrisRock. |
| 421 | * ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'': |
| 422 | ** [[http://web.archive.org/web/20011031071745/http://www.titanstower.com/source/homelinks/wwmovie.html At one point, there were plans in 2001 for a film]] by Joel Silver, with the then-current script drafted by Todd Alcott. It was set to feature both Diana Prince and Donna Troy in the role of Wonder Woman. Donna would have been an ordinary woman that suddenly gained super powers similar to Diana's, and would spend the movie trying to locate her would-be mentor so both could fight off the wicked Dr. Psycho. But the script was also said to ditch Wonder Woman's classic costume in favor of giving her a black catsuit, although her classic uniform would be referenced at some point. |
| 423 | ** Creator/JossWhedon became attached to the ''Wonder Woman'' project in 2005, but left two years later, citing CreativeDifferences with Creator/WarnerBros over the direction of the film. This version would have covered Diana's meeting with Steve Trevor and her journey to the outside world. Creator/CobieSmulders would have played Wonder Woman. Concept art for the film later surfaced, which showed that Wonder Woman would've worn a ''[[Film/TheMatrix Matrix]]''-style [[MovieSuperheroesWearBlack black]] [[BadassLongcoat duster]] and leggings over her traditional costume. Whedon's draft of the film is said to be one long BreakTheHaughty for Diana. Steve Trevor tells her she can never be a hero because she's never known real suffering (calling her "a fucking tourist"), she is forced to dance sexily for Dionysus, and is ultimately BuriedAlive in a mass grave. |
| 424 | * ''Film/MastersOfTheUniverse'': |
| 425 | ** There were plans to make a second film, this one involving cyborgs in the plot. However, interest in the ''[[WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983 He-Man]]'' franchise began to wane at the time, and also the film becoming a flop at box office, and the film was scrapped, what was already done fusing with the aborted ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' film to become ''Film/{{Cyborg 1989}}''. |
| 426 | ** The ''Creator/DCComics'' adaptation placed in a scene that was cut from the original movie - the revelation that Eternia was future Earth. |
| 427 | * In 1989 Debbie Gibson was set to make her starring film debut in ''Skirts'' for Creator/ColumbiaPictures, with choreographer Jeffrey Hornaday making his big-screen debut as a director - but then-studio head Jon Peters put his foot down thusly: |
| 428 | -->'''Jon Peters''': No choreographer will ever direct a picture here! |
| 429 | -->'''Executive''': But what about Creator/BobFosse? |
| 430 | -->'''Jon Peters''': I don't want him, either.[[note]]Bob Fosse directed ''Film/AllThatJazz'' for Columbia - and was, by this time, the late Bob Fosse (he passed away in 1987). But Peters may have called it correctly with Hornaday, who made his directorial debut two years later for Universal with ''Shout''... and didn't direct another movie for two '''decades''', until ''Film/GeekCharming''.[[/note]] |
| 431 | * Creator/HenryCavill was called by one magazine, "the unluckiest man in Hollywood". There is a rumor that fans wrote in to have him play Cedric in ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', but he lost out to Creator/RobertPattinson. Creator/StephenieMeyer herself wanted him to play Edward Cullen in ''Film/{{Twilight}}'', but by the time production started, he was too old and again lost out to Pattinson. He also lost out to Creator/DanielCraig for the role of James Bond in ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006''. Ironically, he also was nearly cast as Superman in ''Film/SupermanReturns'', 8 years before he played Superman in ''Film/ManOfSteel''. |
| 432 | * Film/TheViewAskewniverse: |
| 433 | ** The ending to ''Film/{{Dogma}}'' would have been a little different: originally, Silent Bob was to confront the Golgothan and one of the demon kids that were killed previously in the hospital after God is rescued which would have God turn the Golgothan into a bunch of flowers, but was cut. |
| 434 | ** There's also the original ending to ''Film/{{Clerks}}'' which would have had Dante [[DiabolusExMachina killed by a robber out of nowhere]]. Creator/KevinSmith is on record as saying that the rest of the franchise likely would not have happened if this original ending had been kept. |
| 435 | * ''Film/ScoobyDoo'': |
| 436 | ** Creator/TimCurry was originally going to play Mondavarious, but he backed out when he found out that the character was a disguise for [[spoiler:Scrappy-Doo]]. The role would be taken up by Creator/RowanAtkinson. |
| 437 | ** Speaking of [[spoiler:Scrappy]], he wasn't supposed to appear in the movie at all (not even being ditched by Scooby and the gang as part of the backstory), though Creator/JamesGunn's original draft does have the U.S. Coast Guard threaten to put Scooby to sleep, with Shaggy adding, "Like what happened to [[spoiler: Scrappy]]." The main [[spoiler:villain]] was instead supposed to be Old Man Smithers, the Luna Ghost from the beginning of the movie, living up to his vow of revenge, this is why the Luna Ghost's shadow is so prominent on the posters, home releases, and promo materials. |
| 438 | ** The original script was more faithful to the series and acted as a prequel story, explaining how the gang came together; with the gang being in a college that had a newly instated 'No Dogs Allowed' rule that brought in a sadistic dogcatcher, forcing Shaggy to hide Scooby. Daphne would have been an aspiring reporter for the school's newspaper who was danger prone as she was in the series and is invited to attend and write about a part at the old Kingston Mansion (from the classic series episode "What The Hex Going On?") on campus grounds but her roommate Velma comes with her due to a power outage and would meet Shaggy and Scooby, who were delivering pizzas, at the party. The party would have been broken up by the ghost that was rumored to haunt the place, but a series of events leads Scooby to knocking the ghost down and Velma unmasks him to be none other than Fred, who was doing it as a House Initiation Dare. The now five members of the gang would have been left in the mansion where the plot would take off and be attacked by the Ghost of Elias Kingston and they'd stumble into the film's mystery. There was also going to be a more serious romance arc between Daphne and Fred, who initially dislike each other but come to care deeply for one another, especially when Daphne discovered Fred is homeless and lives in what becomes the Mystery Machine. Other characters from the show such as Mr. Wickles ("What a Night for a Knight") and Old Hank ("Mine Your Own Business") would have appeared along with other Creator/HannaBarbera properties making cameos, such as WesternAnimation/JosieAndThePussycats appearing as a band at the party, an inanimate WesternAnimation/{{Speedbuggy}} in a parking lot, ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'' playing on TV, and William Hanna and Joseph Barbera themselves were also intended to make cameos at the end as the presidents of the university, praising Mystery Inc for saving the school. The original script and the final film don't have much in common, other than a darker and higher stakes story than the series with an end of the world scenario, a character arc with a love interest unintentionally coming between Shaggy and Scooby (though the original script had her as more of a goth/grunge girl who shared Shaggy's passion for food as opposed to the Mary Jane character in the final movie), and risque humor with jokes about the old rumors that Shaggy was a pothead, hinting Mr. Wickles was a transvestite, and Scooby would have called the dogcatcher an 'rasshole'. |
| 439 | * The various [[Music/TheBeeGees Brothers Gibb]] were at times destined to have a much more illustrious film career.... |
| 440 | ** In the late Sixties, a version of ''Theatre/{{Hair}}'' was pitched, starring Barry as Berger and Maurice as Woof. Barry turned down the part as he refused to appear nude. |
| 441 | ** Music/AndyGibb was considered for the male lead in ''Film/{{Xanadu|1980}}'', but turned down as his drug addiction was at an all-time high at this point. |
| 442 | ** Likewise, Andy was considered for the male lead in ''Film/Grease2'', which ended up going to Maxwell Caulfield. |
| 443 | ** This has never been proven, but it seems logistical that Andy, whose career was at its peak at the time, would've been considered for the male lead in ''Film/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' alongside his brothers. |
| 444 | ** Maurice Gibb recorded a score for low-budget B-movie ''The Supernaturals'' - coincidentally starring Maxwell Caulfield - which was replaced in most editions of the film. Ironically, reviewers bashed the replacement score (which Maurice had nothing to do with), claiming it to be annoying and unnecessary. |
| 445 | * The 1986 version of ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors'' was intended to be MUCH darker, not only including the infamous "Audrey and Seymour die and plants take over" ending, but featuring gorier shots such as Seymour feeding Orin's dismembered head to the plant and more of Seymour squeezing blood out of his finger, as well as a surreal dream sequence in the middle of "The Meek Shall Inherit" featuring a bleeding portrait of Mr. Mushnik. Only the "Don't Feed The Plants" ending has made it to an official release, though the other scrapped footage can be seen online thanks to the fairly recent discovery of an existing workprint. |
| 446 | * The ''Film/{{Predators}}'' 1996 script by Creator/RobertRodriguez included the return of "Dutch" Schaefer, and featured several captured alien creatures being fought in an arena, soldiers colluding with the Predators, the appearance of over fifty Predators, and a Predator King. |
| 447 | * Creator/RobLiefeld: |
| 448 | ** ''ComicBook/DoomsIV'', an "ecological superhero film" based on Rob Liefeld and Kurt Hathaway's short lived Image comic. The movie was supposed to take place after the comic, and was planned to be produced by Amblin Entertainment and directed by Creator/StevenSpielberg. |
| 449 | ** Movies based on ''ComicBook/YoungbloodImageComics'', to be directed by Creator/BrettRatner, ''Bloodstrike'', and ''Godyssey'', based on an ''Avengelyne'' story, were announced, but updates became sparse after 2013. |
| 450 | * ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' could have been considerably different in a number of ways: |
| 451 | ** Music/MickJagger was originally slated to play Frank-N-Furter, before Creator/TimCurry returned to the role. |
| 452 | ** Creator/SteveMartin originally auditioned for Brad Majors, while '''[[Creator/VincentPrice VINCENT FRIGGIN' PRICE]]''' auditioned for the Criminologist. |
| 453 | ** The creators asked Creator/SusanSarandon to appear nude during "Touch-A Touch-A Touch Me," and she refused. (Ironically, as she would appear nude in many films later on.) |
| 454 | ** As is well known, the singing lips replaced a rather dull sequence of sci-fi film clips meant to accompany "Science Fiction Double Feature." |
| 455 | * The entire "Rocky Horror" franchise may have worked out differently, had Creator/RichardOBrien's 1979 sequel "Rocky Horror Shows His Heels" been accepted by Fox and not mutilated into "The Brad and Janet Show" (which in turn became ''Film/ShockTreatment''). Oddly enough, the unmade 1994 sequel "Revenge of the Old Queen" was a direct sequel to this script rather than acknowledging any of ''Shock Treatment'', which has led to quite a bit of confusion from fans who have read it. |
| 456 | ** Fan club founder Sal Piro once joked that if the terrible "Heels" script had seen production, the Rocky fan-base might not exist today. The relatively few fans who are aware of the contents of the script (which is kept under wraps for legal reasons) tend to agree with this sentiment. |
| 457 | ** No-budget Rocky fan film "Bedroom Scenes," which consists only of three individuals (Magenta, Columbia and an interviewer) conversing, was originally written as a much more involved film in which a character wakes up in Magenta and Columbia's bedroom, unaware of how he got there. He would then witness the events of RHPS unfold from 'behind the scenes,' culminating in his failure to prevent Columbia's murder. |
| 458 | *** Prior to becoming its own script, the character waking up in Magenta and Columbia's bedroom was originally a brief dream sequence in the script for an unmade indie flick titled "Hopelessly Devoted," which got as far as seeking music rights and location scouting before one of the lead actors passed away suddenly. |
| 459 | * ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'': Rapper Music/{{Common}} was offered the role of Heavy Duty's cousin Roadblock, but film screenwriter, Stuart Beattie, chose Heavy Duty instead. |
| 460 | * ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation'' was originally slated for release in 2012, but was held back a year to do some reshoots with Channing Tatum, expanding Duke's role in the film. [[http://carriev.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/g-i-joe-retaliation/ Carrie Vaughn suggests]] this expansion must have come at the cost of other scenes (such as [[spoiler:a possible reaction shot from the British Prime Minister when London was destroyed]] or any characterization for Flint at all) which had to be cut to stay at a 110-minute running time. |
| 461 | * There were scenes in the script for ''Film/TheDreamers'' depicting much more blatant sexual relations between the characters of Matthew and Theo, but they were not filmed. Creator/BernardoBertolucci said, "The gay sex was in the first script, but I had a feeling that it was just too much stuff. It became redundant." Creator/MichaelPitt said in interview, "It was in the script and it's what I'd signed to do. But they said we weren't going to do that." |
| 462 | * Universal had a ''One Step Beyond'' movie in the works in 1983, but according to Paul Bartel Creator/StevenSpielberg indicated he wasn't too keen on another movie based on an anthology TV show coming out in competition with [[Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie the one he was doing at Warner Bros]]... and as ''Starburst'' wrote, "at Universal, whatever Steven wants, Steven gets." |
| 463 | * In the mid-1990s, UsefulNotes/TedTurner was planning to get a ''Series/GilligansIsland'' movie produced with Creator/AdamSandler as Gilligan and Creator/ChrisFarley as The Skipper. Though the idea never got passed the development stage, you can't help but imagine what the end result would have been with Sandler and Farley's on-screen chemistry. |
| 464 | * The entire career of Creator/GeorgeLucas might not have happened. In high school, he had aspirations of being a race car driver and did amateur races. Just before graduation, he was involved in a serious crash that destroyed his car. ([[{{Irony}} Ironically,]] he survived because he was thrown from the wreck due to his seat belt ''failing''.) After the crash, he decided to make movies instead. Interesting because there are two other possible outcomes: he might have become a race car driver or he could have died. Lucas had also planned to become a pilot and filled out an application to join the Air Force. When he took his physical, he found out that he was diabetic and was turned down. |
| 465 | * In the 1950's, Creator/WarnerBros intended to film a number of titles in [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDMovie 3-D]] but didn't due to the trend dying. Titles that could have been in 3-D included ''Film/EastOfEden'', the 1954 version of ''Film/AStarIsBorn1954'', ''The High and the Mighty'' and ''Literature/MisterRoberts''. |
| 466 | * ''Film/WorldWarZ'': |
| 467 | ** An early treatment for the film (which was leaked in 2009) was much closer to the book, and had Brad Pitt's character (Gerry Lane) interviewing survivors after the outbreak. |
| 468 | ** Creator/EdHarris and Creator/BryanCranston were originally intended to star in the film, but scheduling issues kept them from participating. |
| 469 | ** The last forty minutes of the movie were [[http://www.movies.com/movie-news/world-war-z-original-ending/12638 reshot]] when it became clear that there were much deeper plot issues than the filmmakers originally thought. Everything from the point where Gerry boards the plane leUnsortedFilmaving Israel is completely different. In the original version, the plane not only doesn't crash, but lands safely in Moscow. The passengers are rounded up by the military and are conscripted to fight the infected, and Gerry's phone is taken away. There's a TimeSkip showing that he's formed an anti-infected unit that is utilizing the cold weather to take out as many of them as possible, and he later saves Segan from a Russian soldier who tries to rape her. He then gets his phone back and calls his wife, only to discover that she's selling her body to keep their kids safe in a refugee camp. The end of the movie had Gerry, Segan and a British soldier named Simon boarding a boat and traveling to the U.S. to rescue Gerry's family. |
| 470 | ** Creator/MatthewFox (who appears in one scene of the film as the paratrooper who saves Gerry during the rooftop escape) originally had a much larger role as the man Kirin is prostituting herself to in the refugee camp in exchange for safety. He would have appeared in the original ending (and was likely planned for a sequel), but most of his scenes were cut. |
| 471 | ** The film originally had a more breakneck pace, with very little time focusing on character relationships. Several scenes (including Gerry and his family having breakfast, and a phone call Gerry makes to Kirin) were added to the film during the reshoots. |
| 472 | * Originally, ''Film/{{Elysium}}'' was about escaping genetic experiments getting out into the real world from a factory, the eponymous Elysium (which sounds a lot like Creator/NeilBlomkamp's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmd8BDiB-qU commercial for Adidas]]). |
| 473 | ** Blomkamp originally wanted {{Music/Eminem}} for the lead but the latter dropped out after they couldn't film in Detroit. |
| 474 | ** [[TheDragon Kruger]] was originally going to be an android, then he was changed to a human who would be turned into a cyborg after getting horribly injured, until they finally settled for having him be a regular human with a powered exoskeleton. |
| 475 | ** The original process for attaching the exoskeleton would have been far more graphic, requiring removing the subject's internal organs and replacing them with mechanical parts, and cutting off the top of the subject's skull in order to plug the control systems directly into the brain. This was likely dropped because it would [[FridgeLogic pretty much eliminate Max's entire reason to want to go to Elysium]]. |
| 476 | * At the 2009 D23 Expo, Creator/RobinWilliams announced that he would star in a Disney comedy called ''Wedding Banned'', which would have been about a divorced couple who kidnap their daughter from her own wedding so she wouldn't make the same mistakes they did. It ended up being cancelled after the failure of ''Old Dogs''. |
| 477 | * ''Creator/QuentinTarantino'' was at one point interested in making a movie about Vic Vega aka Mr. Blonde from ''Film/ReservoirDogs'' and Vincent Vega from ''Film/PulpFiction'' whom he revealed were brothers, it was to be titled "The Brothers V", the project was cancelled after Michael Madsen and John Travolta had aged to the point where they no longer looked like they did in their respective films. |
| 478 | * ''Film/TheLoneRanger2013'' was originally supposed to have a plot focusing more on supernatural elements and [[MagicalNativeAmerican Native American mysticism]], in keeping with the idea of Tonto being the big player. This mainly would've taken the form of werewolves, which would've explained the whole "silver bullet" thing. However, this draft was supposedly part of the initial $250 million proposal that Disney quickly shit-canned after ''Film/JohnCarter'' underperformed; when the project was revamped to meet Disney's approval, it came more in line with the current script. |
| 479 | * Scottish director Lynne Ramsay was originally set to direct the film version of ''Film/TheLovelyBones'', and had written a script in which all the scenes of Susie in heaven are clearly shown as being in her grieving father's imagination, and where he has befriended Mr. Harvey, never suspecting him of Susie's murder. |
| 480 | * ''Film/{{Bean}}'' would have ended with Mr. Bean returning to the National Gallery, only to find it abandoned, so he ends up mailing himself back to the Leary family (In truth, the staff of the Gallery staged the whole thing to drive Bean away). |
| 481 | * ''Film/DrStrangelove'': |
| 482 | ** A deleted scene gave the film a FramingDevice of being made by aliens, based on records found in an Earth bomb shelter AfterTheEnd. |
| 483 | ** In the nineties, Kubrick and Southern began to collaborate on a script for a sequel set decades later in the mineshaft, which they planned to pitch to Creator/TerryGilliam. |
| 484 | * There was buzz of a movie version of the novel ''Literature/GatesOfFire'', about the [[UsefulNotes/GrecoPersianWars 300 Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae]], with Creator/GeorgeClooney and Creator/BruceWillis and directed by Creator/MichaelMann. It dined in DevelopmentHell long enough to be shelved because of ''Film/ThreeHundred''. |
| 485 | * The rights to the remake of the 1976 movie ''Film/{{Sparkle}}'' were bought by Music/WhitneyHouston's production company in the 1990s, and Music/{{Aaliyah}} was intended to play the title character, however, she passed away in 2001 before the movie started production. In 2005 Creator/RavenSymone was also in talks to star in the movie, which was finally released in 2012 with Jordin Sparks as the lead. |
| 486 | * Creator/ChrisPratt initially turned down the role of Peter Quill in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'' because he felt like he was too fat for the lead role. He eventually ended up losing over 60 pounds to take the role. Pratt also auditioned for the role of Jake Sully in ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' (the role which went to Sam Worthington) and Kirk in ''Film/StarTrek2009'' (the role that went to Chris Pine). This may be somewhat of a subversion since Chris Pratt didn't think he would get either of those roles anyway, also mentioning a ''G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra'' audition that he labeled as "embarrassing". |
| 487 | * Creator/OttoPreminger liked to have several film projects going at once, and he never got around to filming many of them: |
| 488 | ** In 1954, Preminger traveled to India, and then began work on ''The Wheel'', a Hindu drama in which UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi was to "play a symbolic role." |
| 489 | ** Preminger acquired the film rights to Alexander Fedoroff's novel ''The Side of the Angels'', and had Music/ElmerBernstein compose a TitleThemeTune that could have been used to promote it. Nothing more came of this project. |
| 490 | * ''Film/BruceAlmighty'': The original script contains a lot more scenes that didn't make it into the final movie. These include: Bruce answering lots of prayers individually (including God showing him the consequences), Grace's breasts growing twice more (and going back to normal after a prayer), Bruce "pleasuring" Susan right before they go on air, a lot more stories covered during the "A Little Less Conversation" montage, people confessing their sins to Bruce, and an entire new character called "Bobby", who works at Channel 7, and is damned by Bruce, causing him to become possessed by a demon. |
| 491 | * Director Creator/RussellMulcahy, planning on a transition from music videos to films, fully intended to helm a film adaptation of the Creator/WilliamSBurroughs novel ''The Wild Boys'' with Music/DuranDuran doing the musical score for the film. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you're not a fan of Mulchay or DD) the project never got off the ground, leaving only one song, which happened to be one of the best-selling singles of Duran's career ("Wild Boys"). Later on Mulcahy got to collaborate with another band on a film project that actually succeeded, ''Film/{{Highlander}}'', with the music provided by Music/{{Queen}}. |
| 492 | * ''Film/TheSlumberPartyMassacre'' from 1982 was written by a feminist activist and it was supposed to be a spoof of the [[SlasherMovie slasher genre]]. Instead, it was shot as a serious film. The end result is [[IndecisiveParody a mixed bag]] with more {{Fanservice}} than any other slasher film of its day. |
| 493 | * There was an alternate ending to ''Film/{{Titanic|1997}}'' where, when Rose goes to drop the Heart back into the ocean, her daughter and the scientists race out to stop her, thinking she's going to jump again. She reveals that she had the Heart the entire time and that she had thought of selling it for years, only to think about Cal and that she didn't need money to be happy. It also reveals the main reason she joined them was so that she could finally send the Heart back to the Titanic. The lead scientist convinces her to let him hold it for awhile, though she warns him that he's looking for treasure in all of the wrong places. When he finally allows her to take it back, ''then'' she throws it into the ocean, which ''highly'' pisses off one of the other scientists. The lead scientist, though, finally understands and starts laughing before asking Rose's daughter if she wanted to dance. |
| 494 | * ''Film/MinorityReport'' started out in the hands of Creator/CarolcoPictures who intended it to be a direct sequel to ''Film/TotalRecall1990''. Apparently the movie would have been set on a terraformed Mars, where mutants with psychic powers were abducted and used to power the Pre-Crime system. They even intended to bring Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger back to play Quaid as the main character. They apparently even had a script written, but then Carlco went out of business and the rights went to Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox. It stayed in DevelopmentHell with them for years until Creator/StevenSpielberg and Creator/TomCruise came on board. Spielberg rewrote the script from scratch, turning it into a standalone movie. |
| 495 | * The original script for ''Film/RedState'' had the horns sounding during the climax be the signal for the literal Apocalypse, with the Five Pointers and the ATF agents (save Creator/JohnGoodman) all being killed by angels as the Four Horsemen appear on the horizon. They didn't have the budget to pull that off, so the ending was changed to the surviving Five Pointers arrested and Goodman's ATF agent being debriefed. The horns were handwaved as a prank by the compound's neighbors. |
| 496 | * In ''Film/DraculaUntold'', the Master Vampire was [[spoiler: never revealed as the Roman Emperor Caligula as originally intended, nor was Creator/CharlieCox who was cast as a young Caligula even in the final cut. [[Film/LesMiserables2012 Samantha Barks]] was cast as the Baba Yaga, but also doesn't appear]]. |
| 497 | * Creator/MichaelChabon pitched short movie treatments for the ComicBook/FantasticFour and the ComicBook/XMen. The Fantastic Four was to be set in an AlternateHistory which, tonally, "was forever November 21st, 1963" and, plot-wise, was to involve Doctor Doom travelling back in time to assassinate a key world figure in order to remake the world into a grim dystopia that was pretty much the real world. Soviet agents were also going to be involved somehow. |
| 498 | * ''Film/VampireAcademy'': |
| 499 | ** The film title was originally ''Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters'', the ''Blood Sisters'' part was later dropped. |
| 500 | ** In the original draft, Christian was [[AdaptationDyeJob Blond]] and Jesse was [[RaceLift Latin]], Needless to say author Richelle Mead was [[BerserkButton not impressed.]] |
| 501 | * Creator/WesCraven had written a script for a film adaptation of ''Literature/FlowersInTheAttic'' back in the '80s, but it was rejected. While mostly faithful to the book, there were a few changes: |
| 502 | ** The Dollangangers were [[AdaptationNameChange renamed]] to the 'Chapmans' for unknown reasons. |
| 503 | ** It was much more violent (And occasionally less serious) than the novel, including Chris being attacked by a wolfhound belonging to the Grandmother's watchman [[CanonForeigner Doberman]], and Cathy being tied up and left in a bath tub full of scolding hot water. |
| 504 | ** The script had a bigger focus on Chris than in the book, sharing the role of main character with Cathy. |
| 505 | ** Unlike the eventual film adaptation, the BrotherSisterIncest between Cathy and Chris was kept. In addition, Chris did ''not'' end up raping Cathy. |
| 506 | ** The climax was also changed. Like the 1987 adaptation, it takes place during Corine's wedding. The [[spoiler: remaining]] children had to deal with Doberman while getting out of Foxworth Hall, and then revealing themselves as Corine's children right in front of the wedding guests and Corine's fiance. At the end, Doberman would have fallen from the roof [[spoiler: and fell on top of the Grandmother, killing her]]. |
| 507 | * Creator/ColinFirth was originally cast as the voice of the titular bear in ''Film/Paddington2014''. However both he and the producers came to the mutual conclusion that his voice wasn't the right fit for the character, and he ended up being replaced by Creator/BenWhishaw instead. This was somewhat awkward as there had already been posters printed out and distributed with Colin's name on them, but there were no trailers featuring Colin's voice. However most critics agree that Ben's softer voice was more suited for Paddington than Colin's more regal voice. |
| 508 | ** A similar incident occurred with Creator/AlPacino with ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe2'', who was going to voice the BigBad. Pacino had creative differences with the filmmakers and eventually dropped out, but the movie was so far into post-production that it was too late to replace Pacino's name that was prominently shown in all the trailers. Benjamin Bratt came in and did the role just a mere month before release, so close that his role wasn't advertised at all. |
| 509 | * During the earliest stages of development for ''Film/{{Annie 2014}}'', Willow Smith was in talks to play Annie, with [[Creator/WillSmith her father]] in the Warbucks/Stacks role. But it was later decided that Willow was too old for the role. Creator/QuvenzhaneWallis (fresh from her Oscar-nominated role in ''Beasts of the Southern Wild'') stepped in to play Annie, and Jamie Foxx auditioned for Stacks, a role which he eventually got when Will Smith decided not to act in the film (he's still credited as a producer - after all, the film ''is'' associated with Overbrook Entertainment). |
| 510 | * ''Film/PhaseIV'' was to have had an impressionistic epilogue, storyboards for which were captioned "Man Controlled (Paradise Lost)," "Transformation," "Rebirth" and "Man at One with Nature (Paradise Regained)." This sequence had to be abandoned due to lack of funding. |
| 511 | * According to emails leaked in the Sony hack, a scene in ''Film/{{Pixels}}'' where video game characters [[spoiler:destroy the Great Wall of China]] was cut from the final product because the executives felt it would lead to Chinese backlash. |
| 512 | * ''Film/TheRocketeer'': Creator/JohnnyDepp was Disney's preferred choice to star as Cliff Secord before Bill Campbell was cast. His getting passed over was part of why he was eventually cast as Captain Jack Sparrow in ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean''. Creator/KurtRussell, Creator/KevinCostner, and Creator/BillPaxton were also considered. |
| 513 | * ''Film/JupiterAscending'': |
| 514 | ** After Creator/NataliePortman dropped out, Creator/RooneyMara was considered for Jupiter but ultimately Creator/MilaKunis got cast. |
| 515 | ** Creator/JosephGordonLevitt was considered for a role but it's unknown which role exactly. Most likely Caine or one of the Abrasax siblings. |
| 516 | * In the mid-1990s there was a semi-seriously pitched idea for a live-action ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' movie. The idea was to take cues from the theatrical adaptation ''You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown'', which features adults playing all the roles, including Snoopy (who does ''not'' wear a dog suit). Rumors swirled that Charlie Brown, Lucy and Linus would be portrayed by... Creator/DustinHoffman, Creator/BrookeShields and Creator/JackNicholson, respectively. [[QuestionableCasting The casting "choices" were widely ridiculed]], and nothing was heard about the project after that. In 2015, ''WesternAnimation/ThePeanutsMovie'' was released -- but it was a traditional (albeit souped-up) animated feature like the ones from 1968 to 1980, with Creator/KristinChenoweth as the only big (voice) star (and in a relatively minor role, too). |
| 517 | * Creator/DavidLean: |
| 518 | ** His next film after ''Film/TheBridgeOnTheRiverKwai'' was a biopic of UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi, produced by Sam Spiegel and starring Creator/AlecGuinness. |
| 519 | ** He spent most of the '70s trying to get his two-part ''Film/MutinyOnTheBounty'' remake off the ground. He scouted locations in Tahiti, built a replica ship and commissioned Creator/RobertBolt to write the screenplay. The main problem? Money. At various points Creator/DinoDeLaurentiis, Joseph E. Levine and even Lean's old sparring mate Sam Spiegel were tapped to produce. But Lean's refusal to rein in the budget or scale back the script scared all of them away from the project. Creator/RobertBolt's stroke in 1979 finally convinced Lean to abandon the project. Eventually the project morphed into ''Film/TheBounty'' (1984), directed by Creator/RogerDonaldson and starring Creator/MelGibson and Creator/AnthonyHopkins. Though based off Bolt's screenplay, this film was much smaller in both scope and budget than what Lean originally envisioned. |
| 520 | ** He was to film an adaptation of ''Literature/{{Nostromo}}'', with Creator/StevenSpielberg producing it for Creator/WarnerBros, but Lean died a few weeks before the principal photography was to begin. Creator/MarlonBrando, Creator/PaulScofield, Creator/AnthonyQuinn, Creator/PeterOToole, Creator/IsabellaRossellini, Creator/ChristopherLambert, Creator/DennisQuaid and with Georges Corraface as the title role, had all been set to star. Lean also wanted Creator/AlecGuinness to play Dr. Monygham, but the aged actor turned him down in a letter from 1989: "I believe I would be disastrous casting. The only thing in the part I might have done well is the crippled crab-like walk." |
| 521 | * The studio originally wanted a white actor to play the titular character in ''Film/{{Blade}}'', but screenwriter David Goyer argued against this. Other candidates Mike [=DeLuca=] suggested for the lead role included Creator/DenzelWashington and Creator/LaurenceFishburne. |
| 522 | * ''Film/BladeTrinity'': |
| 523 | ** German director Oliver Hirschbiegel was considered to direct after the film's original director left by order of Creator/WesleySnipes. By that time, he had signed a contract with Constantin Film to direct ''Film/{{Downfall}}'', which stated he could not move on to other ventures during production of the film. Hirschbiegel decided not to bail from ''Downfall'' after legal action was threatened against him. [[AndYouThoughtItWouldFail This ultimately paid off for Hirschbiegel in the end]]. ''Downfall'' was universally-acclaimed and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, while ''Blade: Trinity'' was critically panned, flopped at the box office and was the indirect FranchiseKiller for the ''Film/BladeTrilogy''. |
| 524 | ** Rachel van Helsing from the comics was originally going to be one of the three leads, but she was replaced with an {{Expy}} named Abigail Whistler in order to avoid inviting comparisons with the ''Film/VanHelsing'' movie. |
| 525 | ** The plot for the movie was originally going to be an AfterTheEnd story featuring Blade protecting the last remnants of humanity after vampires have taken over the world. The studio vetoed the idea because they thought it would be too bleak and expensive. |
| 526 | * ''Film/PaperTowns'': |
| 527 | ** There was a brief idea to have [[spoiler:Ansel Elgort play Gus Margo's security guard friend as a nod to his role in ''Film/TheFaultInOurStars'', but was thought it would be too confusing]]. Instead he plays Mason the gas station clerk. |
| 528 | ** John Green revealed the existence of [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/19/paper-towns-john-green_n_6902886.html a very different early draft]] ([[SelfDeprecation which he described as "terrible"]]) where Q's love interest was Lacey instead of Margo. |
| 529 | * ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'': |
| 530 | ** Creator/TomHanks turned down the role of Andy Dufresne. |
| 531 | ** Creator/ClintEastwood, Creator/HarrisonFord, Creator/PaulNewman, and Creator/RobertRedford were all considered to star as Red before Creator/MorganFreeman was selected. |
| 532 | * [[ComicBook/{{Daredevil}} The title role]] in ''Film/{{Daredevil}}'' was initially won by Creator/MattDamon. However, Damon ended up having CreativeDifferences with the director Mark Steven Johnson and left. Creator/ColinFarrell, Creator/EdwardNorton, Creator/GuyPearce and Creator/VinDiesel were also candidates for the role up until Creator/BenAffleck stepped in. |
| 533 | * ''Film/FiftyShadesOfGrey'': |
| 534 | ** Creator/CharlieHunnam was originally cast as Christian Grey, but left due to creative differences. |
| 535 | ** Creator/RobertPattinson was said to be E.L. James' personal choice for Christian Grey, and Creator/RyanGosling was the studio's first choice. |
| 536 | ** Creator/JoeWright, Creator/StevenSoderbergh, and Creator/GusVanSant were all considered to direct. |
| 537 | ** At the end of the film, the director came up with what could have been quite a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome as Ana stops Christian from following her into the elevator just by saying their safeword "Red." Sadly, E.L. James refused to let them do it. |
| 538 | * Adrian Cronauer says ''Film/GoodMorningVietnam'' was originally pitched as a TV series, an Armed Forces version of ''Series/WKRPInCincinnati'', but couldn't generate any interest. He retooled the series idea into a made for TV movie and couldn't sell that, either. Even though one of the top shows at the time was ''{{Series/MASH}}'', Cronauer was repeatedly told that war isn't funny. Then a copy of the movie screenplay got the attention of Creator/RobinWilliams. |
| 539 | * Promotional images for a court scene in ''Theatre/TheChildrensHour'' exist however the scene was deleted for the final product. |
| 540 | * ''Film/{{Divergent}}'': |
| 541 | ** Creator/MilesTeller auditioned for the role of Four, but producers thought he was a better fit for Eric. He turned it down, feeling he couldn't be intimidating against Creator/TheoJames. Creator/ShaileneWoodley personally persuaded him to take the role of Peter instead. |
| 542 | ** A love scene was filmed between Tris and Four, but cut to preserve the PG-13 rating. |
| 543 | ** Similarly [[spoiler:Edward being stabbed in the eye]] was also filmed, but cut to avoid an R rating. The director says that it interrupted the flow of the scene anyway. |
| 544 | ** Creator/KateWinslet wanted to return for ''The Divergent Series: Allegiant'' and let the filmmakers know she was available to cameo. They ultimately decided against it. |
| 545 | ** Creator/NeilBurger was to direct all the movies. But, overwhelmed by post production commitments to ''Divergent'', he backed out of ''The Divergent Series: Insurgent'' (which was greenlit hurriedly after high advance ticket sales). |
| 546 | * ''Film/{{The Maze Runner|2014}}'': |
| 547 | ** Catherine Hardwicke was originally set to direct until Wes Ball came on board. Ball had been looking to direct a feature-length version of a short film he had made called ''Ruin''. As the tone was so similar to ''Literature/TheMazeRunner'', he was asked to direct the film adaptation. |
| 548 | ** Creator/DylanOBrien almost didn't get the role of Thomas. Wes Ball rejected him after seeing photos from ''Series/TeenWolf'', dismissing him as a PrettyBoy. However he saw a photo of Dylan with his head shaved from another film and was persuaded to meet with him. The two frequently joke about Dylan's "MTV hair" preventing him from getting the part. |
| 549 | * ''Film/TheHungerGamesMockingjay'': |
| 550 | ** Creator/JodieFoster was strongly considered for Alma Coin before Creator/JulianneMoore was cast. |
| 551 | ** The ending to the Part 1 was meant to be the opening of ''Part 2''. The original ending was to be when Boggs knocks Peeta out and the movie fades to black. It was felt that was too big of a cliff hanger. |
| 552 | ** Part 1 was going to open with a scene where Peeta would tell President Snow that he doesn't support the rebellion or Katniss' role in it (not knowing about the atrocities committed by Snow yet). |
| 553 | * ''Mind Ripper'' started life as a sequel to ''Film/TheHillsHaveEyes1977'', with the plot being that Pluto (a recurring cannibal from two previous installments) was being exploited by the army in the desert base which the film takes place in. Despite the end product abandoning the connection, the film is still called ''The Hills Have Eyes 3'' in some areas. |
| 554 | * Creator/FelicityJones was strongly considered for the role of Ava in ''Film/ExMachina''. |
| 555 | * ''Film/TheFaultInOurStars'': |
| 556 | ** The scenes in Amsterdam were intended to be shot on location. However, filmmakers were intimidated by the poor October weather - and also denied permission to film inside the Anne Frank House. As a result, a replica was built, and Pennsylvania doubled for Amsterdam. |
| 557 | ** Creator/MaeWhitman was Creator/JohnGreen's preferred actress to play Hazel. Nonetheless, he was blown away by Creator/ShaileneWoodley's audition and gave her the ApprovalOfGod. |
| 558 | ** A scene was filmed featuring an argument between Gus and his mother right before the trip to Amsterdam, that also features in the book. It would have acted as {{Foreshadowing}} [[spoiler: that Gus's cancer has come back]]. |
| 559 | * Creator/BruceLee was originally going to star in a live-action movie update of Film/CharlieChan titled "Number One Son", playing the role of Chan's first-born son, who would have been portrayed as a Chinese Franchise/JamesBond. The idea was scrapped when the ''Series/{{Batman|1966}}'' TV show became popular and ''Series/TheGreenHornet'' TV show was created (in which Lee played the role of Kato). |
| 560 | * Creator/GeorgeClooney [[http://www.businessinsider.com/george-clooney-canceled-nick-fury-talks-after-this-scene-2015-5 was considered for the role of]] ComicBook/NickFury right around the time ''ComicBook/FuryMax'' dealing with its version of the character--and said mini killed the deal as Clooney was disgusted by some of the stuff in it, including a scene of Fury strangling the main villain with his own intestines, and bowed out of the project. |
| 561 | * ''Film/TheMortalInstrumentsCityOfBones'': |
| 562 | ** Alex Pettyfer turned down the part of Jace Wayland. Among others who auditioned were Alexander Ludwig, Xavier Samuel, Douglas Booth and Lucas Till before Creator/JamieCampbellBower won the role. |
| 563 | ** Creator/MatthewDaddario, who would later play Alec Lightwood in [[Series/{{Shadowhunters}} the tv adaptation of the books]], auditioned for a part in the film. |
| 564 | * The part that Creator/KurtRussell played in the 1988 crime thriller ''Film/TequilaSunrise'' was originally written for and offered to [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation Los Angeles Lakers]] head coach Pat Riley. ''[[http://articles.latimes.com/1989-01-04/sports/sp-106_1_pat-riley Seriously.]]'' Riley had no regrets about turning down the part, saying about Russell, "He plays me better than I can play me." |
| 565 | * The movie ''Film/{{Dredd}}'' was meant to have Judge Death in it, but Fox turned it down, wanting to have something simple instead of dealing with a creature like him. |
| 566 | * ''Film/BoogieNights'': The role of Dirk Diggler was first offered to Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio. When he turned it down in favor of ''Film/Titanic1997'', he suggested Creator/MarkWahlberg for the role. |
| 567 | * There was originally to be a duet in the first ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'' that was basically a song fight between Ms. Drabus and Coach Bolton. Ms. Darbus was played by Alyson Reed, a former Broadway actress, and this cut meant that she didn't get to sing a note in any of the three movies. |
| 568 | * An early draft of ''Film/GetOut2017'' had a SuddenDownerEnding where the hero Chris Washington is [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome arrested for murdering the villains and sent to jail, unable to prove his innocence]]. Out of respect for PoliceBrutality victims, Creator/JordanPeele decided on a more uplifting one where [[spoiler: he is rescued by his best friend Rodney]]. |
| 569 | * In the original ending for ''Film/{{Se7en}}'', [[spoiler: John Doe holds Mills hostage before shooting and killing him, then Somerset tortures doe by shooting him in the arms and legs before burning him alive]]. |
| 570 | * In ''Film/NaturalBornKillers'', [[spoiler: Mickey and Mallory were originally going to be killed by the same serial killer that helped them escape the prison]]. |
| 571 | * ''Film/DirtyDancing 2: Havana Nights'' was originally going to be a stirring and gritty war drama about the Cuban Revolution, focusing on a fifteen year old American girl in Cuba and the difficulties of the revolution being led by the youth (virtually all the revolutionaries being under 30). |
| 572 | * ''Film/ReadyPlayerOne2018'': |
| 573 | ** Creator/ChristopherNolan, Creator/RobertZemeckis, Creator/MatthewVaughn, Creator/PeterJackson and Creator/EdgarWright were all considered to direct the film. |
| 574 | ** Before his untimely death Creator/GeneWilder was offered the role of James Halliday, but he politely declined. Creator/MichaelKeaton was also considered. |
| 575 | ** Nick Robinson, Nat Wolff and Dalton Vaughn were considered for the role of Wade Watts. |
| 576 | ** Creator/ElleFanning and Lola Kirke were considered for the role of [=Art3mis=]. |
| 577 | ** The film's score was originally going to be composed by Music/JohnWilliams but due to scheduling conflicts, he left and was replaced with Music/AlanSilvestri. |
| 578 | * ''Film/KongSkullIsland'': |
| 579 | ** The original opening scene was supposed be set during WWII with an army battling on the beaches of Skull Island before stumbling upon a big ape who looked very much like the original King Kong and shooting him, before the King Kong from this movie would show up, alive and bigger than the original giant ape. While the film kept the WWII setting for the opening scene, it was changed to Marlow and Gunpei fighting only to be interrupted by Kong. |
| 580 | ** Creator/JKSimmons and Creator/MichaelKeaton were initially attached to the project but left before filming started. As such, they were replaced by Creator/SamuelLJackson and Creator/JohnCReilly respectively. |
| 581 | ** There was originally going to be a scene where the main characters stumble upon a "boat village", populated by people who have gotten washed up or shipwrecked on the island. |
| 582 | * Creator/TinaFey's original script for ''Film/MeanGirls'' was intended as an R-rated film, due to Fey wanting to write a truthful high school experience. Several lines were rewritten or cut altogether in the final film: |
| 583 | ** The boy who comes up to Cady and asks "Is your muffin buttered?" originally asked "Is your cherry popped?". According to Fey, the MPAA was more comfortable with the former since it was made-up. |
| 584 | ** The part in the Burn Book about Amber D'Alessio making out with a hot dog was originally that she ''masturbated'' with a hot dog. If one looks closely during the "Made out with a hot dog? Oh my god, that was one time!" line, you can see the line was dubbed and that the actress' lips still read "masturbated." |
| 585 | ** A subplot about a student who takes ecstasy named Barry was cut entirely. |
| 586 | * ''Film/CloudAtlas'': Quite a few things, both book and movie, according to this [[http://www.slashfilm.com/15-things-cloud-atlas/ piece]] by Slashfilm. |
| 587 | ** The book was supposed to have 9 stories, starting all the way back in the 12 century. |
| 588 | ** Dr. Ovid was supposed to be played by Creator/TomHanks. |
| 589 | ** Creator/BenWhishaw was supposed to appear as a business man in Sonmi's story. |
| 590 | ** Creator/JamesDArcy had a bigger role in Cavendish's tale before it got cut down. |
| 591 | ** Creator/NataliePortman, Creator/JamesMcAvoy and Creator/IanMcKellen were once involved in the project at one point. |
| 592 | * ''Film/FlashGordon1980'': |
| 593 | ** Sam J. Jones was at least third choice to play Flash. Creator/KurtRussell was offered the role, but chose to do ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'' instead. Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger was considered, but rejected, due to his thick Austrian accent. |
| 594 | ** Creator/DinoDeLaurentiis wanted Music/PinkFloyd to do the movie's score. He didn't even know who Music/{{Queen}} was. |
| 595 | ** Creator/SergioLeone was De Laurentiis' first choice as director. Leone declined because he felt the script wasn't faithful enough to the comic. |
| 596 | * In a case of "What could have been?" tag, Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter was originally considered for the role of Bess [=McNeil=] in ''Film/BreakingTheWaves'', but dropped out suddenly and was replaced with the then-unknown Creator/EmilyWatson. Watson was initially considered for the role of UsefulNotes/ElizabethI in ''Film/{{Elizabeth}}'', but was replaced by the then-largely unknown Creator/CateBlanchett. Watson was also considered for the role of ''Film/{{Amelie}}'', (originally named Emily) but dropped out and was replaced by the then-unknown Creator/AudreyTautou. |
| 597 | * ''Film/MoulinRouge'': |
| 598 | ** In early drafts, Satine was a SingleMomStripper with a three-year-old son, whom [[spoiler: Christian adopted after her death.]] Instead of the final FramingDevice of Christian writing the story, the framing scenes would have shown an older Christian telling the story to the now-grown son. |
| 599 | ** Originally there was a scene between Christian and his father in England before Christian's departure for Paris, which would have featured Cat Stevens' "Father and Son." It was cut because Stevens refused to license the song, but the scene is included in the complete script on the Special Edition DVD. |
| 600 | * In ''Film/{{Elf}}'', the store Buddy worked in New York was actually Macy's. Macy's actually signed off on this under one condition - Santa couldn't be revealed as fake. The director wasn't keen on changing the script to accommodate this and pulled out. |
| 601 | * ''Radio/JourneyIntoSpace'': |
| 602 | ** After the success of ''[[Franchise/{{Quatermass}} The Quatermass Xperiment]]'', the film remake of the 1953 BBC serial ''[[Franchise/{{Quatermass}} The Quatermass Experiment]]'', [[Film/HammerHorror Hammer]] expressed interest in producing a ''Journey into Space'' film. However, the studio did not think that the existing scripts were suitable for adaptation and instead requested that Charles Chilton write a new one. He was unable to do so due to his volume of work at the BBC. |
| 603 | ** Also in 1955, London Films and Ealing Studios separately considered producing a ''Journey into Space'' film. |
| 604 | * ''Film/Hellboy2019'': |
| 605 | ** The movie originally began production as the second sequel to 2008's ''Film/HellboyIITheGoldenArmy'', but CreativeDifferences led to Creator/GuillermoDelToro and Creator/RonPerlman both leaving, thus causing a long hiatus until it was decided to reboot following the rise of R-rated superhero movies. |
| 606 | ** Creator/EdSkrein was originally cast to play Ben Daimio, but dropped out when he learned that his character is of Asian descent in the comics and didn't want to whitewash his role. Creator/DanielDaeKim took his place. |
| 607 | ** Creator/DougJones was offered a cameo but was unable to participate due to commitments to ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery''. |
| 608 | * Following ''Film/HenryV1944'', ''Film/Hamlet1948'' and ''Theatre/RichardIII'', Creator/LaurenceOlivier planned a film adaptation of ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' with himself in the title role and Creator/VivienLeigh as Lady Macbeth. Sadly, the box office disappointment of ''Richard III'' and the death of one of the financiers put an end to it. |
| 609 | ** Creator/SeanConnery agreed to return as James Bond for ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'' in exchange for Creator/UnitedArtists greenlighting two projects of his choosing. One got made - the gritty crime thriller ''Film/TheOffense''. The unmade film - an adaptation of ''Theatre/MacBeth'' with an all-Scottish cast. Alas, it was abandoned following Creator/RomanPolanski's adaptation. |
| 610 | ** In the early seventies, Creator/RichardBurton told Olivier of his plan to adapt ''Macbeth'' to the big screen with Creator/ElizabethTaylor as his Lady. |
| 611 | * Creator/MichaelWinner planned a BioPic of UsefulNotes/WilliamTheConqueror with Creator/OliverReed in the lead role. It was scrapped when they couldn't get funding. |
| 612 | * There were plans for a remake of ''Film/TheSevenYearItch'' in The80s starring Creator/AlPacino. |
| 613 | * In the early 1970s, Creator/{{Paramount}} had plans to remake ''Film/DoubleIndemnity'' with Creator/RobertRedford in the Walter Neff role. The project never got off the ground. |
| 614 | * In the mid-'80s a remake of ''Film/MyDarlingClementine'' was announced starring Creator/BurtReynolds and Creator/TomSelleck, but it never materialized. |
| 615 | * In the late 1980s, Creator/CharltonHeston considered starring in a remake of ''Film/RideTheHighCountry'' with Creator/ClintEastwood. |
| 616 | * Creator/JohnBoorman planned an adaptation of ''Theatre/RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead'' in 1968 with Irvin Winkler producing for Creator/{{M|etroGoldwynMayer}}GM, who bought the rights for $200,000. It would have starred Creator/MichaelCaine and Creator/TerenceStamp in the lead roles, Creator/LaurenceOlivier as the Player King, Creator/AlbertFinney as Claudius and Creator/MaggieSmith as Gertrude. Creator/DonaldSutherland and Creator/ElliottGould also wanted to star but MGM never greenlit the movie. |
| 617 | * Behold, the unmade projects of Creator/JohnHughes: |
| 618 | ** ''National Lampoon's Jaws 3/People 0'' (1979). A documentary spoof of the making of ''Film/{{Jaws}}''. Due to a lawsuit from Creator/StevenSpielberg looming if it was made, Universal Studios scrapped it. |
| 619 | ** ''National Lampoon's The Joy of Sex'' (1981). A comedy anthology film about the life of a young man obsessed with sex, even when he enters adulthood. It was originally to star Creator/JohnBelushi and be directed by Creator/PennyMarshall, but when a reluctant Belushi decided to go ahead with the film, he died from a drug overdose the next morning and Paramount did not produce the movie. The script was eventually re-written as a teenage sex comedy under the title ''Film/JoyOfSex'' in 1984. Matty Simmons was involved with the movie, but ordered to have his name and the National Lampoon moniker taken off the film after he saw the final cut. |
| 620 | ** ''The History of Ohio from the Beginning of Time to the End of the Universe'' (early 80s). A dramatic adaptation of Lampoon’s ''Sunday Newspaper Parody'', an ''[[Website/TheOnion Onion]]''-like sendup of a small-town paper. |
| 621 | ** ''Lovecats'' (1984) A movie that would've starred Creator/MollyRingwald, named after Music/{{The Cure|Band}} song of the same name. The plot is unknown, but a mixtape of what the soundtrack would've been was made by Hughes to give Ringwald an idea of what the film would be like. |
| 622 | ** ''The Last Good Year'' (1984). A movie with Creator/AnthonyMichaelHall set in 1962, the titular last good year before UsefulNotes/TheBritishInvasion. The movie would follow America's cultural shift following the Invasion. Just like ''Lovecats'', a mixtape of the supposed soundtrack was made by Hughes. |
| 623 | ** ''The New Kid'' (1986). A movie meant to star Creator/AnthonyMichaelHall as the new kid in college. Passed over by Howard Deutch in favor of ''Film/PrettyInPink''. |
| 624 | ** ''Oil and Vinegar'' (1987). A comedy-drama road movie meant to star Creator/MatthewBroderick and Molly Ringwald. Broderick would play a groom driving out of town to a wedding with Ringwald as a hitchhiker that he picks up. They both then talk about their personal problems in the car for the remainder of the trip. |
| 625 | ** ''Bartholomew Vs. Neff'' (1991). A comedy meant to star Creator/JohnCandy and Creator/SylvesterStallone as feuding neighbors. Likely passed over after ''Film/CurlySue'' received negative reception from critics. |
| 626 | ** ''Black Cat Bone: The Return of Huckleberry Finn'' (1991). A modern retelling of ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn''. |
| 627 | ** ''Peanuts'' (1992). A supposed live-action adaptation of the [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} titular comic strip]]. Likely canceled in favor of ''Film/DennisTheMenace''. |
| 628 | ** ''The Bee'' (1994). A Creator/{{Disney}} movie about a man, played by Creator/DanielStern, and his daylong battle with a simple bee. |
| 629 | ** ''Tickets'' (1996). A group of teenagers pull an all-nighter in sub-zero temperatures waiting for tickets to a legendary rock concert. Never made due to a similar film, ''Film/DetroitRockCity'', entering production first. |
| 630 | ** ''Grisbys Go Broke'' (2002). A middle-class family lose all their money and are forced to spend the holidays frugally. It was rumored that Paramount was going to make this movie upon the passing of Hughes, but no news has been heard since. |
| 631 | * Behold the unmade films of Creator/WalterHill: |
| 632 | ** ''Lloyd Williams and His Brother aka The Drifters'' - a Western written circa 1971. Hill says Creator/SamPeckinpah was considering making it after ''Film/TheGetaway'' but decided to do ''Film/PatGarrettAndBillyTheKid'' instead so Hill used material from the script in ''Hard Times''. |
| 633 | ** ''The Last Gun'' - a Western written with Roger Spottiswoode (circa 1977). |
| 634 | ** ''Lone Star'' from the play by James M. [=McClure=] to star Creator/PowersBoothe and Creator/SigourneyWeaver (1981). |
| 635 | ** ''The Last Good Kiss'' based on a novel by James Crumley (early 1980s). |
| 636 | ** An adaptation of ''Literature/RedHarvest'' by Creator/DashiellHammett (early 1980s). |
| 637 | ** An adaptation of Creator/JimThompson's ''Pop. 1280'' (1980s). |
| 638 | ** A remake of ''Film/TheMagnificentSeven1960'' (1984). |
| 639 | ** A remake of ''Film/TheKiller1989'', with Creator/RichardGere as the assassin and with Creator/DenzelWashington as the cop. Left the project due to CreativeDifferences. |
| 640 | ** ''American Iron'' (1989/1990) - a film set in the world of bikers written with Marc Brunet, Daniel Pyne, and John Mankiewicz. |
| 641 | ** ''Red, White, Black and Blue'' (1997) - rewrite by Hill of an Andrew Kevin Walker script. |
| 642 | ** ''Vengeance of Mine'' - a contemporary thriller set in Las Vegas. |
| 643 | ** A proposed remake of ''Film/WhatEverHappenedToBabyJane''. |
| 644 | * Creator/{{Michael Cimino|Director}} claimed to have written fifty scripts in his time. Amongst his unmade films: |
| 645 | ** His dream project was an adaptation of ''Literature/TheFountainhead''. Taking its cue from more than the novel, it was largely modeled on architect Jørn Utzon's troubled building of the Sydney Opera House, as well as the construction of the Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York. He wrote the script in between ''Film/ThunderboltAndLightfoot'' and ''Film/TheDeerHunter'', and hoped to have Creator/ClintEastwood play Howard Roark. |
| 646 | ** He spent two and a half years working with James Toback on ''The Life and Dreams of Frank Costello'', a biopic on the life of mafia boss Costello, for 20th Century Fox. "We got a good screenplay together," said Cimino, "but again, the studio, 20th Century Fox in this case, was going through management changes and the script was put aside." Cimino added, "Costello took a long time because Costello himself had a long, interesting life. The selection of things to film was quite hard. |
| 647 | ** While working on the Costello biopic, he wrote a biography on Music/JanisJoplin called ''Pearl'', also for 20th Century Fox. "It's almost a musical," replied Cimino, "I was working with Bo Goldman on that one and we were doing a series of rewrites." |
| 648 | ** In 1987, he attempted to make an epic saga about the 1920s Irish rebel Michael Collins, but the film had to be abandoned due to budget, weather and script problems. The film was to have been funded by Nelson Entertainment. |
| 649 | ** He started pre-production work on ''Santa Ana Wind'', a contemporary romantic drama set in L.A. The start date for shooting was to have been early December 1987. The screenplay was written by Floyd Mutrux and the film was to be bankrolled by Nelson Entertainment, which also backed Collins. Cimino's representative added that the film was "about the San Fernando Valley and the friendship between two guys" and "more intimate" than Cimino's previous big-budget work like ''Film/HeavensGate'' and the yet-to-be-released ''The Sicilian''. However, Nelson Holdings International Ltd. cancelled the project after disclosing that its banks, including Security Pacific National Bank, had reduced the company's borrowing power after Nelson failed to meet certain financial requirements in its loan agreements. A spokesman for Nelson said the cancellation occurred "in the normal course of business," but declined to elaborate. |
| 650 | ** He was in talks to direct The Yellow Jersey, a bicycle racing drama with a script by Carl Foreman and starring Creator/DustinHoffman. The project was ultimately abandoned as it proved logistically difficult to shoot during the actual Tour de France. |
| 651 | ** One of his final projects was writing a three-hour-long adaptation of Andre Malraux's 1933 novel ''Man's Fate'', about the early days of the Chinese Revolution. The story was to have focused on several Europeans living in Shanghai during the tragic turmoil that characterized the onset of China's Communist regime. "The screenplay, I think, is the best one I've ever done," Cimino once said, adding that he had "half the money; [we're] trying to raise the other half." The roughly $25 million project was to be filmed wholly on location in Shanghai and would have benefited from the support of China's government, which said it would provide some $2 million worth of local labor costs. Cimino had been scouting locations in China since 2001. |
| 652 | * The following projects were announced for Creator/ErrolFlynn but were not made: |
| 653 | ** ''Danton'' (1936) based on ''Literature/DantonsDeath'' and to be produced by Max Reinhardt and directed by William Diertele. |
| 654 | ** ''The White Rajah'' (late 1930s) – based on the life of Sir James Brooke based on Flynn's own story. |
| 655 | ** ''The Romantic Adventure'' (1938) – a romantic comedy with Joan Blondell based on an original story by Jerry Wald and Maurice Leo. |
| 656 | ** ''The Outpost'' (1939) based on ''Caesar's Wife'' by Somerset Maugham starring Flynn and Geraldine Fitzgerald directed by Creator/MichaelCurtiz. |
| 657 | ** ''Shanghai'' (1940) from a story by Somerset Maugham. |
| 658 | ** ''Jupiter Laughs'' (1940) from the play by A.J. Cronin. |
| 659 | ** ''The Life of Simón Bolívar'' (1939–40) – possibly with Creator/BetteDavis. |
| 660 | ** ''The Sea Devil'' (1942) – a remake of ''The Sea Beast'' which was adaptation of ''Literature/MobyDick''. |
| 661 | ** ''Ghosts Don't Leave Footprints'' (1941) – sequel to ''Film/FootstepsInTheDark''. |
| 662 | ** ''To the Last Man'' (early 1940s) – comedy with Alexis Smith. |
| 663 | ** ''The Devil, George and Rosie'' (1943) – from a story by John Collier to star Flynn, Ann Sheridan and Creator/HumphreyBogart. |
| 664 | ** ''The Frontiersman'' (circa 1945) – an original western by Alan [=Le May=] about the beginning of a riverboat operation in the Mississippi to be produced by Flynn and Mark Hellinger with Creator/RaoulWalsh directing. |
| 665 | ** ''Film/StallionRoad'' (1945), based on a novel, with Creator/IdaLupino. |
| 666 | ** ''Target Japan'' (1945) with producer Jerry Wald and director Raoul Walsh about a B-29 bombing crew. |
| 667 | ** ''The Man Without Friends'' (1945) based on story by Margaret Eckhard about a man accused of the murder of his wife to be produced by Henry Blanke and adapted by Catherine Turney. |
| 668 | ** untitled adventure film "in the Frank Buck tradition" shot off the coast of Mexico produced by Flynn. |
| 669 | ** ''Thunder Valley'' (1946) - a Western written by James Webb and produced by Owen Crump. |
| 670 | ** ''General Crack'' (circa 1947) – remake of a 1929 film originally starring Creator/JohnBarrymore. |
| 671 | ** ''Half Way House'' (circa 1947) – an "alpine thriller" by Frances Potter and Spencer Rice. |
| 672 | ** ''The Turquoise'' (circa 1948) with Creator/ClaudeRains and Dorothy Malone based on the adventure novel by Anya Seton - set in the American southwest in the 1890s, written by Edmund North produced by William Jacobs. |
| 673 | ** ''The Candy Kid'' (1948) with producer Bill Jacobs - story of a gambler in the days of Diamond Jim Brady from a script by Borden Chase based on a magazine story by Michael [=MacDougall=]. |
| 674 | ** ''The Last of the Buccaneers'' (circa 1949) – a pirate movie based on a script by Flynn himself to be produced by Flynn, shot in technicolor with the star as a Robin Hood type pirate (not to be confused with the 1951 Paul Henreid film) story of the female pirate Mary Burns with Creator/GreerGarson (circa 1949) (he and Garson also discussed doing a Broadway play together). |
| 675 | ** ''The Man Who Cried'' (1950) – production with William Marshall described as a psychological thriller about the perfect crime which took place over four hours. |
| 676 | ** ''The Man from Sparta'' (1951) – movie to be shot in Italy about Spartacus. |
| 677 | ** ''The Bengal Tiger'' (1952). |
| 678 | ** ''Fire Over Africa'' (1952). |
| 679 | ** ''The Green Moss'' (1952) from a magazine serial by John Molloy to co-star Gordon Macrae directed by Roy del Ruth. |
| 680 | ** ''The Talisman'' from the novel by Sir Walter Scott (1953). |
| 681 | ** ''Abdulla the King'' (1953) in the title role with Dawn Addams directed by Gregory Ratoff. |
| 682 | ** ''Dragonfly'' (1953) – proposed adventure film from producer John Champion set in the Far East with Flynn as an air force officer whose command is threatened with desertion. |
| 683 | ** ''The Story of William Tell'' (1953) - an epic he was to produce and star in, shot in location in Italy. This was to be the directorial debut of acclaimed English cinematographer Jack Cardiff. The film was abandoned due to financial difficulty. Had the film been completed on time it would have been the first independent movie filmed in CinemaScope. A little more than a minute of footage was shown on Turner Classic Movies in the early 1990s as part of a feature on Flynn, [[MissingEpisode but that short clip itself is now lost as well]]. Flynn's estate have chosen to remain silent about it. A £10,000 model town set was built near Mont Blanc. The model ski resort was turned into a real ski resort that uses the film's production to lure tourists in every year, and is still active today. |
| 684 | ** ''The White Witch of Rose Hall'' (1954) – to be made with Herbert Wilcox based on a Jamaican legend about a female plantation owner who was a witch and killed her husbands – to be produced by Barry Mahon – Flynn was still working on it in 1957 saying he wanted Bob Evans to star and Charles Marquis Warren to direct. |
| 685 | ** ''Lord Vanity'' (late 1950s) – with Creator/RobertWagner |
| 686 | ** Ten Days to Talara'' (1956) with the same director of ''The Big Boodle'' about an adventurer whose son is kidnapped. |
| 687 | ** untitled Creator/DebbieReynolds project as her teetotal father (circa 1958). |
| 688 | * ''Who Killed Bambi'': Formerly titled ''Anarchy in the U.K.'', the film would have been the PunkRock equivalent of ''Film/AHardDaysNight'' starring Music/TheSexPistols. With a script by Creator/RussMeyer and Creator/RogerEbert. Only a brief scene was filmed featuring Music/{{Sting}} (in his film debut) before it was abandoned. [[https://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/who-killed-bambi-a-screenplay Ebert posted the whole script on his blog]]. |
| 689 | * Creator/KevinSpacey's Creator/GoreVidal biopic was at least partially completed, but thanks to his scandals, will most likely never see the light of day. |
| 690 | * When Creator/HaroldRamis guest-hosted ''Series/AtTheMovies'', he revealed that Creator/JohnBelushi's big ambition was to star in a biopic of Music/LudwigVanBeethoven. |
| 691 | * For a period of time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger was attached to star in ''ComicBook/SgtRock'' film, despite the seeming incongruity of an Austrian actor playing an American G.I. in World War II. In fact, the reason Hawkins is reading the comics in ''Film/{{Predator}}'' is because Arnie had them onset for research. Screenplays were written by David Webb Peoples (1987), Steven E. De Souza (1988), Creator/JohnMilius (1993), and Brian Helgeland (1996), depicting Rock as having a German-American father and being able to speak German (a skill he uses to ambush the enemy). Joel Silver was going to produce. |
| 692 | * Creator/JohnMilius planned to make a biopic of Senator UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy entitled ''The Life and Times of Joe [=McCarthy=]'', but it was never made. Creator/WarnerBros wanted him to update ''Film/DirtyHarry'' and he wanted them to fund a version of ''Literature/TheIliad''. |
| 693 | ** He was going to direct a film about UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat starring Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme but that was put on hold when a mini series on the same topic was made by Italian TV. |
| 694 | ** He wrote ''Harlot's Ghost'', for Creator/FrancisFordCoppola based on a novel by Creator/NormanMailer; Milius described it as "a cross between ''Film/TheGodfather'' and ''Film/ApocalypseNow''. It's about families and duplicity and danger, but this time provoked by the government.". |
| 695 | * Creator/BazLuhrmann planned an Alexander the Great biopic starring Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio which was abandoned following ''Film/{{Alexander}}''. |
| 696 | * Creator/BobFosse's next film after ''Film/Star80'' would have been a film about gossip columnist Walter Winchell starring Creator/RobertDeNiro from a script by Michael Herr. He died before filming started. |
| 697 | ** He also planned a film adaptation of ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'' starring Creator/GoldieHawn as Roxie Hart, Creator/LizaMinnelli as Velma Kelly and Creator/FrankSinatra as Billy Flynn. |
| 698 | * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock%27s_unrealized_projects Behold the unmade films of]] Creator/AlfredHitchcock. |
| 699 | * There were attempts to adapt ''Literature/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas'' in TheSeventies starring Creator/DanAykroyd and Creator/JohnBelushi or Creator/JackNicholson and either Creator/MarlonBrando or Creator/DennisHopper. |
| 700 | * Creator/OrsonWelles planned a film version of ''Film/OutOfAfrica'' in TheFifties starring Creator/GretaGarbo. Creator/NicholasRoeg planned an adaptation in TheSeventies starring Creator/JulieChristie and Creator/RyanONeal. |
| 701 | * There were talks of Creator/RonHoward directing a Creator/BillHicks biopic starring Creator/RussellCrowe. |
| 702 | * Creator/LaurelAndHardy had several unmade films: |
| 703 | ** In 1938, Stan and the L&H staff writers began working on a story which had the team in a swashbuckling adventure on Devil's Island. Stan's then wife Illiana would have played the feminine lead. The idea was nixed after the writers had too much difficulty in completing the story. |
| 704 | ** During the 1940s, Laurel and Hardy wanted to star in a film adaptation of [[Literature/DonQuixote Don Quixote and Sancho Panza]]. |
| 705 | ** In 1942, ''Boson Blackie'' writer Paul Yawitz was hired by Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox to submit a story for a Laurel and Hardy film. ''Me and My Shadow'' would have found the duo running around an amusement park, trying to save a baby from a couple of Nazi spies. |
| 706 | ** Around the same time ''Me and My Shadow'' was written, Chuck Roberts and Eugene Ling proposed another story for a Laurel and Hardy Fox film. It too would have found the team against Nazis, this time in a sanitarium in Switzerland. |
| 707 | ** Yet another L&H story proposed to Fox was a film adaptation of stage play ''By Jupiter''. The film would have taken place in ancient Greece, where the population is entirely dominated by Hippolyta (a role intended for Martha Raye) and her female warriors. Stan and Ollie would have played the easily bullied Theseus and Hercules, who unsuccessfully attempt to steal Hippolyta's power. |
| 708 | ** ''Congratulations'', another proposed L&H-Martha Raye vehicle would have found Stan running for governor. |
| 709 | ** Two proposed radio series: ''The Laurel and Hardy Show'' (which did result in a pilot episode being recorded) and ''Laurel & Hardy Go to the Moon''. |
| 710 | ** An autobiography on the team, partially written by Laurel and partially written by Hardy. |
| 711 | ** Following the death of comedian Edgar Kennedy, RKO Pictures considered starring Oliver Hardy in ''The Average Man'' series of short comedies. |
| 712 | ** While on a trip in England, there was talk of starring the duo in a film adaptation of Myth/RobinHood. |
| 713 | ** RKO Pictures wanted the duo to appear as the [[PluckyComicRelief comic relief]] in the 1951 Technicolor musical ''Two Tickets to Broadway''. However, the team was stuck in Paris filming ''Atoll K'', which ultimately continued production months over schedule. RKO hired vaudevillians Joe Smith and Charley Dale as replacements. |
| 714 | ** In 1956, the team was in negotiations with Hal Roach to star in a series of technicolor television specials collectively titled ''Laurel and Hardy's Fabulous Fables''. Each episode would have featured the duo in a retelling of a popular fairy tale, the first of which was to be ''Babes in the Woods''. Stan Laurel suffered a stroke shortly before production was to begin, putting the series on hold. Oliver Hardy's death a year later prevented the series from being made. |
| 715 | ** Creator/BillyWilder planned on making a film with the duo that saw them sleeping in the two Os in the Hollywood sign. This was scrapped when Oliver Hardy died. |
| 716 | * Creator/BillyWilder's ''A Night at the United Nations'' starring the Creator/MarxBrothers as crooks who cause chaos at the U.N. This was abandoned following Chico's death and Harpo undergoing heart surgery. |
| 717 | * Creator/OrsonWelles and Creator/MichaelCaine discussed a film adaptation of Ronald Harwood's play ''Film/TheDresser''. |
| 718 | * Creator/PeterOToole was scheduled to star with Creator/ToshiroMifune in ''Will Adams'', to be directed by Creator/JohnHuston, with screenplay by Dalton Trumbo and produced by Eugene Frenke and Jules Buck. This would have been a biopic of the first English sailor to reach Japan. |
| 719 | * ''Film/MortalKombatTheMovie'': |
| 720 | ** Creator/CameronDiaz was set to play Sonya Blade when she broke her arm in pre-production. |
| 721 | ** The producers' first choice to play Raiden was Creator/SeanConnery, but he declined and his ''Film/{{Highlander}}'' co-star Creator/ChristopherLambert was cast instead,. Given how much mockery Lambert's American-accented Raiden received, one wonders what audiences would've made of a Japanese thunder god speaking with [[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent Connery's unique accent.]] |
| 722 | ** Creator/MichaelJaiWhite was offered the role of Jax for the original and ''[[Film/MortalKombatAnnihilation Annihilation]]''. He turned them down both times (the second in favor of ''Film/{{Spawn|1997}}''). |
| 723 | ** Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme was offered the role of Johnny Cage. He turned it down in favor of ''Film/StreetFighter''. |
| 724 | * Creator/StevenSeagal's dream project was a biopic of UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan that he would direct and star in. No, really. He got as far as scouting locations in Asia and casting actors to play his relatives before it was cancelled due to legal issues involving the mafia. |
| 725 | * There were talks of a remake of ''Film/KindHeartsAndCoronets'' starring Creator/WillSmith and Creator/RobinWilliams that never got off the ground. |
| 726 | * Music/LLCoolJ was once attached to star in a remake of ''Film/{{Dolemite}}''. |
| 727 | * In TheSeventies, Creator/HarlanEllison worked with Creator/IsaacAsimov on a film adaptation of ''Literature/IRobot'' that was actually close to the original novel. Asimov is quoted as saying that this screenplay would lead to "the first really adult, complex, worthwhile science fiction movie ever made." |
| 728 | ** Ellison's script builds a framework around Asimov's short stories that involves a reporter named Robert Bratenahl tracking down information about Susan Calvin's alleged former lover Stephen Byerly. Asimov's stories are presented as flashbacks that differ from the originals in their stronger emphasis on Calvin's character. Ellison placed Calvin into stories in which she did not originally appear and fleshed out her character's role in ones where she did. In constructing the script as a series of flashbacks that focused on character development rather than action, Ellison used ''Film/CitizenKane'' as a model. |
| 729 | ** Ultimately, the film was scrapped due to budgetary concerns. In a meeting with the Head of Production at Warners, Robert Shapiro, Ellison concluded that Shapiro was commenting on the script without having read it and accused him of having the "intellectual and cranial capacity of an artichoke". Shortly afterwards, Ellison was dropped from the project. Without Ellison, the film came to a dead end, because subsequent scripts were unsatisfactory to potential directors. After a change in studio heads, Warner allowed Ellison's script to be serialized in ''Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'' and published in book form. |
| 730 | * Sequels of ''Film/SpaceJam'' were planned, with different types of sports stars, but the ideas were replaced with ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction''. |
| 731 | ** Also, the movie had a few deleted scenes: |
| 732 | *** The movie would start with a ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' parody that makes Elmer cry, instead of the cartoon that Daffy suggests. |
| 733 | *** And the characters would stay in the jungle temple for the final battle, instead of going to space. |
| 734 | * In 2009, there were plans for a remake of ''Film/DropDeadFred'' starring Creator/RussellBrand, but it was scrapped following the failure of the ''Film/{{Arthur 2011}}'' remake. |
| 735 | * In the late sixties, Creator/RichardHarris tried to set up a film adaptation of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', to be directed by to be directed by Frank Silvera, with Creator/FayeDunaway as Ophelia, and music by Music/JimmyWebb, but it fell through Tony Richardson started shooting his version. In 1971, it almost got green-lit again, this time with Harris directing. Ophelia would now be played by Creator/MiaFarrow, with Creator/PeterUstinov as Polonious, and Creator/GeorgeCScott as Claudius, but Paramount Pictures got cold feet, and the project failed to materialize. |
| 736 | * Creator/JosefVonSternberg's adaptation of ''Literature/IClaudius'' starring Creator/CharlesLaughton, based on the novels ''I, Claudius'' and ''Claudius the God'' that was abandoned when Merle Oberon (who was cast as Messalina) was injured in a car crash. The surviving footage appears in Creator/TheBBC documentary ''The Epic That Never Was''. |
| 737 | * Creator/RayHarryhausen's unrealised projects: |
| 738 | ** ''The Jupiter Project'' (1937): A ''Franchise/FlashGordon''–like adventure in which a spaceship lands on Jupiter and encounters a multi-armed creature. |
| 739 | ** ''Evolution of the World'' (also known as ''Evolution'') (1940) |
| 740 | ** ''War of the Worlds'' (1949) |
| 741 | ** ''Food of the Gods'' (1949): Based on a story by Creator/HGWells. |
| 742 | ** ''The Valley of the Mist'' (1950): An unrealized Willis O'Brien project about the discovery of an Allosaurus in a lost valley. The concept later became the basis for Harryhausen's 1969 film ''The Valley of Gwangi''. |
| 743 | ** ''Baron Munchausen'' (1950) |
| 744 | ** ''The Elementals'' (1952): Harryhausen wrote the original outline story about bat creatures that nest in the Eiffel Tower and terrorize Paris, France; he sold the idea for development to Jack Dietz in 1953, but the project, after several scripts—including one by Creator/RayBradbury—languished. A test sequence was nonetheless filmed showing Harryhausen battling one of the bat creatures on a hill. |
| 745 | ** ''The Tortoise and the Hare'' (1953): Only partially filmed, the shelved project was resumed a half-century later and completed in 2002 by Harryhausen, in collaboration with animators Seamus Walsh and Mark Caballero (who had offered Harryhausen, long-retired since 1981, their services to help him finish the film). |
| 746 | ** ''Tarzan and the Ant Men'' (1960): Dropped due to difficulties in obtaining rights to the Tarzan franchise. |
| 747 | ** ''Food of the Gods'' (1961) |
| 748 | ** ''Skin and Bones'' (1963): Based on the novel by Thorne Smith about a photographer who invents a compound that makes him invisible. |
| 749 | ** ''Sinbad and the 7 Wonders of the World'' (1981) |
| 750 | ** ''Sinbad Goes to Mars'' (also known as ''Sinbad on Mars''; ''Sinbad's Voyage to Mars'') (1981) |
| 751 | ** ''Sinbad in the Age of Muses'' (1960): Title given to the Harryhausen's earliest work which then evolved into ''Film/JasonAndTheArgonauts''. |
| 752 | ** ''Sinbad and the Valley of Dinosaurs'' (1966): Harryhausen considered making a Sinbad film involving dinosaurs however it met little interest. He instead co-produced ''The Valley of Gwangi''. |
| 753 | ** ''People of the Mist'' (1983): Based on an Creator/HRiderHaggard story; planned for Creator/MichaelWinner; dropped by Harryhausen due to Winner's insistence on radically changing the story. |
| 754 | ** ''Force of the Trojans'' (1984): A version, with mythological creatures, of Aeneas and his journey after the fall of Troy; a sequel to ''Film/ClashOfTheTitans1981''. |
| 755 | ** ''The Story of Odysseus'' (1996–1998): Harryhausen was consultant on story development and character design for Carrington & Cosgrove Hall Productions. |
| 756 | * Creator/TerryGilliam planned a film adaptation of ''Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities'' starring Creator/MelGibson. When he left to make ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'', it was then going to star Creator/LiamNeeson before being abandoned. |
| 757 | ** He also planned a film adaptation of ''Literature/AConnecticutYankeeInKingArthursCourt''. |
| 758 | * During Creator/TerrenceMalick's hiatus from filmmaking, he developed a few projects during his twenty-year hiatus. ''Q'', which explored the origins of life on Earth; ''The English Speaker'', about Josef Breuer's analysis of Anna O.; adaptations of Walker Percy's novel ''Literature/TheMoviegoer'' and Creator/LarryMcMurtry's ''Literature/TheDesertRose''; and a script about Music/JerryLeeLewis. |
| 759 | * Some of Creator/KenRussell's unmade projects: |
| 760 | ** A biopic of ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinski, which was abandoned after the failure of ''Billion Dollar Brain''. |
| 761 | ** ''Little Sparrow'', a film about Edith Piaf. |
| 762 | ** A biopic of King Ludwig of Bavaria. |
| 763 | ** He announced a biopic of Sarah Bernhardt with Creator/BarbraStreisand. |
| 764 | ** A ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' adaptation in the late seventies. He originally considered Creator/LaurenceOlivier as Dracula. His later cast was either Creator/PeterOToole or [[Music/FleetwoodMac Mick Fleetwood]] in the lead, with Creator/PeterUstinov as Van Helsing. He also wanted Creator/OliverReed as Renfield, with Sarah Miles and Creator/MiaFarrow as Lucy and Mina, respectively. Creator/MichaelYork and Creator/JamesCoburn were also on Russell's wishlist (most likely for Jonathan Harker and Quincey Morris respectively). |
| 765 | ** ''Beethoven's Secret'' was about to start shooting when financing fell apart at the last minute. |
| 766 | ** He was attached to do the film of ''Theatre/{{Evita}}'' for over a year, but ultimately left the project when he refused to cast Creator/ElainePaige in the lead. |
| 767 | ** He planned a biopic of Maria Callas with Creator/SophiaLoren that also failed to get financing. |
| 768 | ** He had a legal fight with Bob Guccione over an aborted attempt to film ''Literature/MollFlanders'' which was dramatised in a movie, ''Your Honour, I Object!'' |
| 769 | ** Towards the end of his life, Russell was planning a remake of the 1976 erotic musical comedy ''Alice in Wonderland''. He offered Creator/KathleenTurner the role of the Queen of Hearts (everyone in her court would have been naked except her), but he died before anything could come of it. |
| 770 | * Creator/MartinScorsese planned a Music/DeanMartin biopic called ''Dino''. It would have starred Creator/TomHanks as Martin, Creator/JimCarrey as Creator/JerryLewis, Creator/JohnTravolta as Creator/FrankSinatra, Creator/HughGrant as Creator/PeterLawford and Creator/AdamSandler as Creator/JoeyBishop. |
| 771 | * Creator/WilliamGoldman's unmade projects: |
| 772 | ** ''Flowers for Algernon: Good Old Charley Gordon'' (1964) – an adaptation of ''Literature/FlowersForAlgernon'' done for actor Cliff Robertson – Robertson was unhappy with the version and hired Stirling Silliphant to write what became ''Film/{{Charly}}''. |
| 773 | ** ''The Chill'' (1967) – adaptation of the 1964 Lew Archer novel by Ross Macdonald. |
| 774 | ** ''In the Spring the War Ended'' (1968) – from the novel by Stephen Linakis about American deserters in Europe at the end of World War Two. Lawrence Turman was producer and Martin Ritt attached as director but the studio, 20th Century Fox, decided not to make it because they wanted Pentagon co-operation for ''Film/{{Patton}}''. |
| 775 | ** ''The Thing of It Is...'' aka ''That's Life'' (1968) – adapted from his novel. |
| 776 | ** ''Piano Man'' – adaptation of his novel ''Father's Day'' |
| 777 | ** ''Literature/{{Papillon}}'' - an adaptation script that wasn't used. |
| 778 | ** A musical remake of ''Film/GrandHotel'' with Creator/NormanJewison to direct. |
| 779 | ** ''The Sea Kings'' (late 1970s) – a pirate movie about the relationship between Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard, the first of a three-picture deal with Joseph E. Levine. Goldman said he wrote the part of Blackbeard for Creator/SeanConnery and at one stage Richard Lester was attached as director. Goldman says Connery and Creator/RogerMoore were considered stars, then later Roger and Creator/DudleyMoore. However the film was too expensive to make. |
| 780 | ** ''The Ski Bum'' aka ''Hot Shot'' (1981) – based on the article "The Ski Bum as an Endangered Species" by Jean Vallely, it was about a man who appeared to live the glamorous life of ski instructor at a resort, only he lives in a trailer with his wife and child. Goldman said this was never made due to tension between the producer and the studio. |
| 781 | ** ''Film/TheRightStuff'' – adaptation of the Tom Wolfe book that was not used. |
| 782 | ** ''Rescue!'' (1980–81) – story of the rescue of employees of Ross Perot by Arthur D. Simons during the Iranian revolution. Goldman said this foundered when Creator/ClintEastwood, the only suitable star to play Bull Simons, elected to make ''Film/{{Firefox}}''. |
| 783 | ** ''Flora Quick, Dead or Alive''. |
| 784 | ** ''The National Pastime''. |
| 785 | ** ''Singing Out Loud'' – unproduced musical worked on with Creator/RobReiner and Music/StephenSondheim. |
| 786 | ** ''Low Fives'' (1992) – comedy about an African who plays for a basketball team in a small college, commissioned by Creator/DannyDeVito and intended to star Creator/JohnCleese and [=DeVito=]. |
| 787 | ** ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'' (c 2003) – a film adaptation of DC's Captain Marvel. |
| 788 | ** ''The Shooter'' – an adaptation of the Creator/StephenHunter novel ''Point of Impact'' that was to have been directed by Lee Tamahori. |
| 789 | ** ''Film/MissionImpossibleII'' – script that was not used. He also declined opportunities to write ''Film/TheGodfather'' and ''Film/{{Superman|TheMovie}}''. |
| 790 | * In 1990 there was serious talk at Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox of remaking ''Film/TheGhostAndMrsMuir'' with Creator/SeanConnery and Creator/MichellePfeiffer in the leads, but the poor box-office for ''Film/TheRussiaHouse'' killed it. |
| 791 | * Creator/DavidCronenberg could-have-beens: |
| 792 | ** He was offered several projects by Paramount Pictures before and after ''Film/TheDeadZone'', all of which were too "mainstream" for his liking. |
| 793 | *** ''Film/{{Witness}}'', which he specifically declined because he saw Amish society as too repressed for him to respectfully depict. |
| 794 | *** ''Film/{{Flashdance}}'' |
| 795 | *** ''Film/BeverlyHillsCop'' (the Creator/SylvesterStallone vehicle version) |
| 796 | *** ''Film/TopGun'' |
| 797 | ** He had a two-script deal with Universal Pictures in the early 1980s that only produced one film, ''Film/{{Videodrome}}''. The other script he wrote for the deal was ''Six Legs'', a comedy "about entomologists discovering an insect on a Caribbean island that is addictive when you eat it." The initial draft he wrote didn't appeal to the executives, however (by his own admission he rushed the writing), and they passed. |
| 798 | ** He was attached to ''Film/TotalRecall1990'' back when the rights were with ''The Dead Zone'''s producer Dino de Laurentiis, but ultimately left due to severe CreativeDifferences. (This famously freed him up to do ''Film/TheFly1986''.) |
| 799 | ** Early in TheNewTens he wrote a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Film/TheFly1986'' for Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox, but it remains unproduced. |
| 800 | * For a man who made many films over five decades, you can imagine that there were a considerable Creator/JohnFord projects that never came to ground: |
| 801 | ** In TheThirties, Ford lobbied Darryl F. Zanuck to produce an English language remake of ''Film/TheGrandIllusion'' (by Creator/JeanRenoir), which he greatly admired. Zanuck, in a surprising aversion of typical Hollywood behaviour, stated that Renoir's film was a masterpiece and it would be a pity to remake it.[[note]]Zanuck was personally a Francophile and quite partial to French culture, though ironically he and Renoir did not get along too well[[/note]] |
| 802 | ** In TheFifties, Ford heavily involved himself with Lord Kilkenny to develop a slew of movies in UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}} in the hope of developing an Irish Cinema. He shot ''Film/TheQuietMan'' in Ireland for this reason and ''The Rising of the Moon'', an anthology film adaptation of Irish short fiction, was an Irish production. One of the segments for the latter film was to be an adaptation of Creator/JamesJoyce's ''The Dead'' with Creator/KatharineHepburn as Greta Conroy. It didn't pan out but years later, Creator/JohnHuston would adapt the short story in a separate production. |
| 803 | ** Ford also expressed interest in making a movie about UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant, seeking to restore the reputation of America's greatest general after decades of Pro-Confederate smears. The closest he ever came was "The Civil War" in ''Film/HowTheWestWasWon''. |
| 804 | ** Towards the end of his life, Ford expressed interest in adapting Creator/ArthurConanDoyle's ''Literature/TheWhiteCompany'' (one of his favorite books) and lobbied extensively but his declining health and non-Western and non-commercial subject matter hindered any production. |
| 805 | * [[http://www.theefnylapage.com/articles/scripts/efladraft19871207.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1nkyNvhwAMexe0xbd4N-XLJcMx6vp6KqEDFD02FFu2NBIQJ-PK8WpSagY The earliest version]] of what would become ''Film/EscapeFromLA'', written by screenwriter Coleman Luck in 1987, was a completely disconnected concept that would have been a prequel to the original film, and would have followed Snake as he is parachuted into Los Angeles for 48 hours in a "Most Dangerous Game" scenario. A combination of bad timing and Creator/JohnCarpenter claiming the script was too "campy" put the kibosh on the project until the mid '90s, when the project was revived. While some of the concepts eventually made its way into the final product, the script as a whole was ''very'' different to the final film. |
| 806 | ** The script begins with narration explaining that L.A. become a walled-off island due to two cataclysmic events: a plague caused by hazardous suntan lotion that turned the population of the city insane, and a 9.1 earthquake that hit the city at rush hour. In the final film, this was changed to be focused on just the earthquake, with the city being walled off at the direction of TheFundamentalist President, who uses the opportunity (and a previous prediction he made about the earthquake) to make himself PresidentForLife. |
| 807 | ** Snake is introduced in [[VivaLasVegas Las Vegas]], where he interacts with a variety of characters (including hookers, a fortune teller and a claw machine that makes people bet their own body parts to win cash) before he is sedated and captured when he goes to get a touch-up on his famous snake tattoo. He is woken up by Bob Hauk (referred to as "Houk"), who explains Snake's service history in a scene very similar to ''New York'', then informs him that he's going to be dumped in L.A. and [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame forced to survive]] for his amusement -- if he can get to a place called "Rodent Park" (essentially, [[{{Expy}} Walt Disney World]]) in 48 hours and survive against a "secret weapon", Hauk will give him anything he wants within reason. At least one part of the intro sequence (Snake interacting with a hooker who has a polypropylene condom in her mouth) was shot verbatim and intended to be used in the final product (albeit much later, when Snake gets to L.A.), was removed before release. |
| 808 | ** Snake is given a submachine gun for protection and is airdropped into the city (in a sequence that was later repurposed with Hauk {{Expy}} Commander Malloy telling Snake the same thing when he tries to use the Coreburner). Snake paraglides past a number of incredulous residents before he lands, but he is immediately captured and knocked out. When he awakes, he's been strapped to a float ([[DamselInDistress across from]] self-professed "beauty queen" Blandish Vox") particpating in "Float Wars", a battlesport overseen by the crazed Surgeon General of Los Angeles. Some of the sequences outlined were either planned or filmed -- the residents waving at Snake were intended to be placed during the hang-glider scene towards the end of the film, where the sequence with the Surgeon General was rewritten to take place in a plastic surgery clinic. |
| 809 | ** The parade is interrupted when Snake's war buddy from the [[NoodleIncident Battle of Leningrad]], Drummond, appears and begins firing on the floats. Snake uses the opportunity to cut his bonds, free Blandish and escape with her, while they're pursued by Drummond. After a cat-and-mouse chase, Snake shoots him several times in the chest, then tells Blandish that he thought Drummond was dead, as he buried him in Leningrad. |
| 810 | ** Snake and Blandish stop at a bar, where he learns that he has a big reputation as a "video star" (a RunningGag similar to the original movie, where people comment that they thought Snake was dead). Traveling further, the pair are forced to flee from a group of crazed surfers, only to be caught again by "The Sewer Man", a sympathetic dweller who gives Snake some information on the area and gives him directions on how to get to Rodent Park. The pair eventually make it to the Hollywood Freeway, when the script's villain, "Oral Turnwheel" (a rich, emaciated warlord who only wears a loincloth) is revealed. Turnwheel orders the "Cultural Police" to attack the duo, and in the ensuing altercation, Blandish is shot and killed. This sequence was partially replicated in the final film, with Taslima being shot and killed by a roving gang on the Hollywood Freeway. |
| 811 | ** Snake is rescued by [[ContrivedCoincidence another former war buddy]], Johnny Lorder, who drugs him and leads him to a club/factory where he is [[GratuitousRape assaulted and taken advantage of by six female dancers]]. Lorder then steals one of his shoes and his weapon. Snake pursues him to a nearby gym, where he fights and overpowers his former colleague, throwing him into an overpowered tanning bed and killing him before retrieving his gear. The only remnant of this scene to make it to the finished product was the character of Map-to-the-Stars Eddie, who uses the same trick (a tranquilizer gun placed in his dashboard) to knock out Snake. |
| 812 | ** Still being pursued, Snake ducks into a religious ceremony being overseen by "Sister Cher Blessing", who leads a group of cowled religious cultists. Snake steals one of the member's cowls and attempts to hide when the police show up, but eventually gives up the ruse and shoots the cops down before the cultists overpower him. He and other refugees are sent to the "Queen Mary", a beached ship near the coast of the island. Once there, Snake discovers that some of the dead refugees have been reanimated, including Blandish, who has been brought there and gives Snake directions on where to go. Snake also encounters [[ContrivedCoincidence another former war buddy]], Dargan, who died and reanimated and is holding a key to escape. Snake defeats him and exits the ship, but is captured by Turnwheel, who reveals that [[TheManBehindTheMan he is the one who orchestrated Snake's capture and pursuit throughout the last 24 hours]]. He explains that Snake is the "perfect soldier" before bringing him to Rodent Park, which has reopened to the public for "Snake Plissken Day". |
| 813 | ** Turnwheel then reveals that the reason for the island's occupants telling Snake he is a "video star" is because they took a DNA sample he gave the army four years earlier and used it to create four clones of Snake. He forces Snake to participate in a DuelToTheDeath with his former clone, under the pretense of wanting Snake's DNA and body to create an army of clones. The overpowered clone Plissken ''defeats'' Snake, with the latter (being mortally wounded) pushing himself into a vat that kills him and dissolves his body. The clone, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone having found remorse over his own actions]] (and being fed up with Turnbull's actions) guns down all of the security forces in the area before picking up Turnbull and tossing him into the same tank. The script would have ended with Hauk arriving as the "new" Snake proclaims that he wants L.A. for himself, before a title card stating Snake would go on [[Film/EscapeFromNewYork his mission to New York two years later]]. |
| 814 | * The third remake of ''[[Film/AStarIsBorn2018 A Star Is Born]]'', which was released in 2018 with Music/LadyGaga as Ally and Creator/BradleyCooper as Jackson Maine, went through many iterations before finally being produced, with planned remakes stretching as far back as the early 1990s. |
| 815 | ** Creator/ClintEastwood was originally going to direct the film when it was in development during 2011. Cooper himself ended up directing it. |
| 816 | ** Over the years, Creator/ChristianBale, Creator/RussellCrowe, Creator/TomCruise, Creator/JohnnyDepp, Creator/RobertDowneyJr, Music/{{Eminem}}, Creator/JonHamm, Creator/SeanPenn, Creator/WillSmith, Creator/DenzelWashington, Creator/JamieFoxx and [[Music/TheWhiteStripes Jack White]] were considered for Jackson Maine. |
| 817 | ** Music/{{Beyonce}}, Esperanza Spalding, Music/SelenaGomez, Music/WhitneyHouston, Music/{{Kesha}}, Music/JenniferLopez, Music/DemiLovato, Music/{{Rihanna}}, Music/{{Aaliyah}} and Music/{{Shakira}} were all considered to play the role of Ally. |
| 818 | ** Creator/RayLiotta was considered for the role of Bobby. |
| 819 | ** Creator/RobertDeNiro, Creator/JohnTurturro and Creator/JohnTravolta were considered for the role of Lorenzo. |
| 820 | ** Originally, Creator/BradleyCooper considered a different film ending where Jackson and Ally perform "Shallow" as the final song. |
| 821 | * ''Film/HeavenCanWait1978'' was planned to be an acting vehicle for UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli, but scheduling conflicts prevented it, resulting in Creator/WarrenBeatty being cast in the Joe Pendleton role and the role being rewritten to showcase Beatty's talent at football, as he couldn't box. [[Film/DownToEarth2001 Paramount would eventually remake the film with a black Joe Pendleton, but as a comedian.]] |
| 822 | * The "Time Out" segment of ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie'' was supposed to end with the central character having a HeelRealization, rescuing two Vietnamese children, and returning to his own time as a changed man. An on-set accident during the filming of the rescue sequence killed Creator/VicMorrow and the two child actors. Rather than re-shoot the sequence with a new actor or cut it altogether, a decision was made to alter the storyline to use only the footage that Morrow had shot prior to his death, [[AbortedArc cutting out the redemption arc]] altogether. |
| 823 | * Columbia short subject comedies: |
| 824 | ** In the late 1940's, Columbia short subjects boss Jules White wanted a make a series of shorts featuring a young, up-and-coming comedian named Danny Thomas. However, Thomas' agent said he had his own plans to launch Thomas' career, and that short-subject comedies were not under consideration. |
| 825 | ** White also wanted to include Henry Armetta (an Italian-American comic actor who frequently played barbers) on his roster of stars (which at that time included Film/TheThreeStooges, Andy Clyde, Harry Langdon, and Charley Chase). However, Armetta insisted on complete control of his shorts, saying he wanted to choose his own cast, crew, scripts, and budget. White replied, "Choose your way out." |
| 826 | * ''Film/{{Garfield}}'': |
| 827 | ** Creator/JimCarrey, Creator/BenStiller and Creator/AdamSandler were all considered for the part of Jon Arbuckle, but were all too expensive, so Creator/BreckinMeyer got the part in the end. |
| 828 | ** Creator/JenniferGarner was considered for the role of Liz Wilson rather than Creator/JenniferLoveHewitt. |
| 829 | ** Instead of Creator/StephenTobolowsky, the first choice for the role of the film's villain Happy Chapman was Thomas Lennon, who couldn't play the part because of scheduling conflcits with ''Series/Reno911''. |
| 830 | ** Before Creator/BillMurray got the part, Creator/JackNicholson was considered for the part of voicing Garfield. |
| 831 | ** The sequel ''A Tale of Two Kitties'' was originally planned to be a crossover with Jim Davis' other comic strip ''ComicStrip/USAcres'', but had to be changed to a different story because of the failing health of Howard Morris, who was Wade Duck's voice actor in the ''U.S. Acres'' segments of ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends''. |
| 832 | * In the 2000's, studios planned to revive the ''Film/{{Candyman}}'' and ''Film/{{Leprechaun}}'' franchises. A crossover between the two was planned to further both franchises, but was scrapped when Tony Todd refused to appear. |
| 833 | * New Line Cinema read the script of ''Film/{{Solace}}'', and initially wanted to rewrite it as a sequel to ''Film/{{Se7en}}'' entitled "[=Ei8ht=]", with Morgan Freeman's character learning that he's actually a psychic detective. |
| 834 | * ''Film/TheBreakfastClub'' almost had a sequel where the characters were in college and detained once more, as well as having the exact opposite personalities that they had in the first film. |
| 835 | ** There was originally going to be a scene where Mr. Vernon was spying on a female gym teacher who was swimming naked in the school pool. |
| 836 | * There was to be a sequel to ''Film/AnAmericanWereWolfInLondon'', involving Debbie Klein (the woman mentioned at the start of the first film) trying to track down David and having nightmares about Nazi mutants. Eventually, she would have found David's nurse Alex, who is also a werewolf and dating David (who's soul is trapped on Earth for some reason). |
| 837 | * Simon West floated an idea for a sequel to ''Film/ConAir'' set in space where, in his own words, "they're all robots or the convicts are reanimated as super-convicts, or where the good guys are bad guys and the good guys are bad guys. Something shocking." |
| 838 | * In the first draft of ''Film/TheWorldsEnd'', Gary King lip-synched "Batdance" from start to finish. |
| 839 | * ''Film/{{Scream}}'': |
| 840 | ** The original script for ''Film/Scream2'' had three killers -- Mrs. Loomis as the BigBad motivated by revenge against the FinalGirl Sidney for [[YouKilledMyFather killing her son]] at the end of [[Film/Scream1996 the first film]], and Sidney's boyfriend Derek and roommate Hallie as her accomplices, a [[AttentionWhore fame-whoring]] OutlawCouple inspired by ''Film/NaturalBornKillers''. After an extra leaked the script online, the film was heavily rewritten, with Mickey as Mrs. Loomis' lone accomplice with a similar motive to Derek and Hallie. To prevent further leaks, screenwriter Kevin Williamson wrote three "dummy" scripts to foil anybody who might leak the film, one of which had the police officer Dewey as the killer. |
| 841 | ** ''Film/Scream3'' saw far greater rewrites thanks to the [[UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} Columbine High School massacre]] leaving the studio uneasy about making a teen-focused horror movie. The original plot had Stu, one of the killers from the first film, surviving and leading a [[MonsterFangirl "fan club" of killers]] from prison to carry out a new killing spree in his name, eventually targeting Sidney. The resulting film was instead a HorribleHollywood satire about the making of [[ShowWithinAShow a film]] [[RippedFromTheHeadlines based on the Woodsboro killings]]. Years later, Williamson would dig his old idea back up, [[DivorcedInstallment file off]] the ''Scream'' name, and turn it into the TV series ''Series/TheFollowing''. |
| 842 | * ''Film/TheLastDaysOfAmericanCrime'': |
| 843 | ** Creator/SamWorthington was originally attached to star in the film. |
| 844 | ** Creator/FGaryGray and Anthony Mandler were both considered to direct. |
| 845 | * ''Film/GodToldMeTo'' originally starred Creator/RobertForster, but he left after a few days due to a falling out with director Creator/LarryCohen and was replaced by Tony Lo Bianco. |
| 846 | * ''Film/BlazingSaddles'': Gig Young, fresh from his Supporting Actor Oscar win for ''Film/TheyShootHorsesDontThey'', was the original choice to play The Waco Kid. But Mel Brooks soon discovered Young was also an alcoholic, who passed out on the first day of filming, due to alcohol withdrawl. Not willing to wait for Young to recover more fully, Brooks fired him and called on Gene Wilder, who played Leo in ''Film/TheProducers.'' The rest is history. |
| 847 | * ''Film/ShredderOrpheus'': |
| 848 | ** Robert [=McGinley=] considered "real actors" to play Orpheus before being convinced to do the role himself, as he'd done in a short film that acted as a precursor to the finished movie. |
| 849 | ** Originally the dream sequence with Orpheus and Persephone was done naked, but it attracted a sizable crowd that threatened the shoot. The addition of clothing saved the scene and allowed filming to continue. |
| 850 | ** The third draft script contained many differences from the finished film. Razoreus was narrator of the film, not Axel, while Scratch was written as male, and the Grey Zoners didn't get their own introductions. The EBN scene happened before Orpheus's concert, and Orpheus himself was Razoreus's cousin, whose band was named Aorta Sandwich, and he had an additional relative named Aunt Elaine. Eurydice's wedding was mostly indoors and her death by snake was retained from the myth, while Hades' house band was originally named the Zombie Gospel Choir and everyone involved was zipped up in body bags after the song. Orpheus also had a dog after the time skip, and the dance audition and his conversation with the oracle before entering her parlor were both scripted, as were additional scenes where he gets a jaywalking ticket and Razoreus scores the pizza. The draft ended with the explosion of the EBN broadcast tower, and Eurydice and Persephone had less to do than in the finished film. |
| 851 | * ''Film/MovingViolations'': Creator/MichaelJFox was tabbed to play lead character Dana, before producers decided he was too young to plausibly pull off playing an incurable smart-ass like Dana. He was replaced with Creator/BillMurray's younger brother John. A blessing in disguise, as this left Fox free to replace Eric Stoltz in ''Film/BackToTheFuture1.'' |
| 852 | ''Film/CoolWorld'': The original concept for the film was for it to be an erotic horror flick about a cartoonist who had sex with a sexy cartoon woman he created named Debbie Dallas, from which he becomes father of a half-real, half-cartoon girl who considers herself a freak and goes on a rampage against the man who spawned her. Due to executive meddling (party due to the producer being tired of the horror genre having produced many popular 80's horror films) and pressure from Star Kim Basinger (who wanted a film she could show to children), the movie's script was rewritten to be more family friendly. Had Bakshi been able to stick to his original horror script, might the film have been a success and not killed off all adult animation that wasn't based off popular animated TV shows for over two decades? |
| 853 | * ''Film/WhiteChristmas'', like the previous Music/IrvingBerlin movie musicals ''Film/HolidayInn'' and ''Blue Skies'', was originally to have had a dancing star as a foil for Music/BingCrosby, in this case Creator/DonaldOConnor rather than Creator/FredAstaire. When O'Connor was replaced by Creator/DannyKaye, Berlin rewrote the ArgumentSong "A Singer--A Dancer" as "A Crooner--A Comic" to better fit Kaye's personality, though the number was ultimately {{cut|Song}}. |
| 854 | * ''Film/TheExorcist'': Two actresses were considered before Creator/EllenBurstyn for the role of Chris [=McNeil=]: Creator/ShirleyMacLaine (rejected by casting because of her role in an earlier, similar movie, ''Film/ThePossessionOfJoelDelaney'') and Creator/CarolBurnett, whom the producers liked because she brought a different kind of star power to the role (the studio turned her down). |
| 855 | * ''Film/KnightsOfTheZodiac'': |
| 856 | ** Early script versions stuck closer to [[Manga/SaintSeiya the source material]], with Seiya training in Sanctuary as a child, and the other Bronze Knights (who are otherwise AdaptedOut of the final film) being part of the cast. These elements were dropped for the sake of simplifying the story for a general audience, while the Bronze Saints were "tragically" cut due to the lack of time and budget needed for each of them to be properly depicted. |
| 857 | ** Nero was originally intended to be the primary villain, but after the filmmakers felt they wouldn't have enough time to properly explore his depth and motivation, Guraad was created as a simpler, [[{{Muggle}} less-mystical]] threat. One version of the script even cut Nero out entirely, before he was added back in for the sake of the story. |
| 858 | ** Guraad was originally conceived as a man (and a business partner of Alman Kiddo), but following the character's poor reception in ''Anime/SaintSeiyaKnightsOfTheZodiac'' ([[AdaptationFirst which was based on the film but came out first]]) and the addition of Creator/FamkeJanssen to the cast, the character was [[GenderFlip changed to female]]. |
| 859 | * During the last months of Creator/JohnBelushi's life, he attempted to create a vehicle for himself after the back-to-back failures of ''Neighbors'' and ''Continental Divide''. The film, ''Noble Rot'', was about the troublemaking son of a Northern Californian winemaker family. When his elder, more responsible brother falls ill, he's sent to New York in his place for a big wine competition, only to get involved in a diamond forgery scheme by an attractive wealthy woman. The film was meant to be a throwback to the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 40s with Belushi still being comedic but now the straight man, a complete 180 from his iconic role as "Bluto" Blutarsky of ''Film/AnimalHouse''. However, Michael Eisner, then-CEO of Creator/ParamountPictures, refused the script and tried to persuade him to take the lead role of ''The Joy Of Sex''. Despite Belushi's attempts otherwise, he failed in trying to pitch ''Noble Rot'' and accepted the other role before dying days later. |
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