13 Awesome Movies That Only Happened Because Of Awful Flops

3. Platoon...Because Oliver Stone Wrote Year Of The Dragon To Get It Funded

The Awesome Movie: Easily one of Oliver Stone's greatest efforts (if not his best outright), Platoon draws from the writer-director's own experiences in Vietnam to blistering effect, while Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe (the latter two of whom were nominated for Best Supporting Actor Oscars) deliver astounding performances. One of the very best Vietnam war films to date, Platoon won Best Picture and Best Director Oscars, and endures alongside Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter as one of the quintessential movies made about the conflict. How It Got Made: Stone originally wrote the script for Platoon upon returning from the Vietnam war in the late 1960s, but struggled to get it made, so took on other writing assignments in the interim. One such job was the Mickey Rourke-starring movie Year of the Dragon, which Stone wrote for a reduced fee on the condition that producer Dino De Laurentiis would later secure funding for Platoon, which he did despite ultimately not being involved with the project personally. While Year of the Dragon received mixed reviews and completely flopped at the box office, it gave Stone the industry leverage he needed, with Laurentiis getting the script to John Daly, who loved it and agreed to fund the film along with his other script, Salvador. Without Year of the Dragon, Stone might've been stuck making terrible horror films like The Hand forever more.