12 Insane First Drafts Of Famous Movies
Nuke the fridge? What could possibly go wrong?
It goes without saying that the final version of a movie that lands in cinema screens has always gone through a vast number of changes from the earliest stages when it was a mere glint in the eye of a writer. Usually, the process involves the script being passed through the hands of several people, polished and changed to the specifications of the studio and moulded from a rough collection of ideas into an actual movie.
That might sound a little unfair on the guy who had the first idea, but as you'll find when reading through the history of first drafts of famous movies, these people aren't always to be relied on not to try and ruin their own movies with entirely batsh*t ideas.
In that respect, we're lucky that the first drafts weren't anything like what we end up getting to see...
12. The One What Was A Dark Thiller - The Truman Show
The Movie We Know...
The archetypal Big Brother anxiety movie, but with a comedy edge and lots of warming charm thanks to Jim Carrey. Despite a horrific concept, The Truman Show is essentially a human propaganda movie that mostly stays away from darkness. What it does embrace is more like pathos.
But, What We Almost Got...
Something a lot darker.
As the film's original script was inspired by "Special Service" - a Twilight Zone episode about a man discovering his life is a TV show - the tone was considerably more bleak and "grown-up" and absolutely not what you'd expect from a comedy.
Originally, the film was called The Malcolm Show (considerably less glamorous already) and was set to be a sci-fi thriller with Brian DePalma attached to direct it. From there, it went through a monumental 24 drafts by writer Andre Niccol, whose darker ideas were later used for Gattaca.