12 Movies You Didn’t Realise Were Originally TV Shows

10. S.W.A.T.

Released in 2003 as a big screen production, S.W.A.T. looked like it might be a cool action flick starring Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michele Rodriguez, and Jeremy Renner. While not exactly an example of riveting film making, the movie did perform well at the box office, pulling in over $200 million worldwide. The film revolves around Farrell and Renner, a pair of best-buddy cops on a S.W.A.T team who wind up getting a hostage wounded, forcing the department to rebuild the unit under the guidance of Jackson's character, nicknamed Hondo. Pretty by-the-numbers, most modern viewers probably wouldn't even recognise that it was based off a 1975 TV series of the same name. The mid-70s S.W.A.T. was put together by mega-producer Aaron Spelling, and lasted two seasons, starring Steve Forrest (as team leader Hondo), Rod Perry (as second-in-command Deacon), and notably Robert Urich. The show did use an actual ex-LAPD S.W.A.T. team member as an advisor, but the real team on which the show was based was highly critical of it. Having never caught on with viewers and with the subject of violence on television becoming an increasing issue at the time, the show was canned, only to be resurrected for the 2003 film. Both Forrest and Perry have cameos in the movie, but in the end, neither the TV show nor the film are really remembered today.