10 First Draft Movie Ideas Better Than What We Got
Quit living in the past, Cap.
Making a movie sure isn't easy, and for the vast majority of hit Hollywood blockbusters, they go through countless iterations in the scripting stage before finally arriving at a screenplay fit for shooting.
And the annals of cinema are undeniably littered with terrible first draft ideas that were thankfully nixed before filming began - Star Wars' Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) was originally named "Luke Starkiller", Jurassic Park 4 was written to include gun-totting mutant dinosaurs, and Creed II even featured a ghostly appearance from Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers). Oof.
That's just a few examples, and they're proof of how valuable the drafting process truly can be, of streamlining characters and concepts while removing any elements likely to upset the tone or prove problematic.
But sadly, sometimes filmmakers and executives take things too far, throwing out great concepts, characters, endings and even entire scripts in the pursuit of something broader and, generally speaking, less satisfying.
Though not all of these movies are bad - in fact, a few of them are great - each nevertheless tossed out a solid gold, five-star idea for reasons that tended to be cynical or in the very least misguided.
Thankfully in many cases the scripts have since leaked online, serving as a fascinating and infuriating monument to potential unrealised...