10 Fascinating Backstories Behind Famous Movies
2. Who Framed Roger Rabbit Probably Came Out Of A Potential Script For Chinatown 3
Chinatown and Who Framed Roger Rabbit both have one obvious thing in common: they're both works in the film noir genre, albeit one is about a hard-boiled detective trying to solve a case about drought in Los Angeles and the other is about a hard-boiled detective interacting with a giant, talking rabbit.
But these two seemingly unrelated works actually have more in common than just genre ties: Who Framed Roger Rabbit is, wacky cartoon aesthetics aside, widely believed to have come about as a result of an unmade Chinatown sequel named "Cloverleaf," which was set to cap off the series as a trilogy but - for one reason or another - never ended up being made.
The third film was supposed to focus on the corrupt freeway system in Los Angeles, but somehow - and even unofficially - elements of the script seemed to find their way into the screenplay for Roger Rabbit. Don't buy it? You'll recall that "Cloverleaf" is the name of the bad guy's company in Robert Zemeckis' film, which injects this whole story with added authenticity.
None of this has ever been officially confirmed, but there's enough evidence to suggest that it is - at the very least - partly true.