10 Cancelled Movies (That SECRETLY Lived On)

4. The Malcolm Show

The Film

Obviously, we got to see The Truman Show on the big screen, because Peter Weir and Jim Carrey teamed up and made the beautiful, existential comedy drama that proved Carrey could actually act after years of pleasant mugging to the camera.

But before we got to that movie, an alternate version - called The Malcolm Show - was written by Andrew Niccol. It was a far more serious movie and a sci-fi thriller rather than the softer version Weir would eventually sanction after an almighty TWELVE rewrites.

How It Lived On

Clearly taken with the idea of a depressing future where people would be enthralled by watching a manufactured life 24/7 (how bloody apt his observations were, eh?), Niccol kept his original idea for The Malcolm Show locked away in his brain box for later.

He channelled the darker elements of that original story into his portrait of a dystopian, tech-obsessed world in Gattaca. Strangely enough, that ended up coming out before The Truman Show and flopped hard at the box office. So maybe Peter Weir was right about the direction?