7. Quaker Oats Attempted To Use Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory To Sell Chocolate
In a clear demonstration of not giving a single, solitary crap about the movie business, the Quaker Oats Company bought the rights to Roald Dahl's classic novel Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, with the hope of adapting it into a glorified, 100-minute advertisement for their new "Wonka" chocolate bar (hence the film's title being changed to Willy Wonka and...). This came about by pure coincidence, when director Mel Stuart was meeting with producer David L. Wolper and mentioned the book, after which Wolper had a meeting with Quaker Oats, and given that they were looking for way to promote their new candy, he put two and two together, getting in bed with a company who knew absolutely diddly squat about making movies. Ironically, while Quaker funded the picture, it went on to become an iconic cinematic classic, while their Wonka bar soon enough faded into obscurity. Despite not giving a damn about whether the film did well or not, it seems like everyone got their just desserts in the end...