8 Early Drafts That Almost Ruined Great Movies

Although it took the delectable core concept - astronaut stranded on a strange planet where chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans rule - the original Planet Of The Apes deviated heavily from Pierre Boulle's original novel. In fact, in some ways Tim Burton's take is more accurate(doesn't make it any less dreadful, though).

The major shift was the sense of scale - the story covered more time, saw the protagonist more integrated into ape society (something that would be flipped for Escape From The Planet Of The Apes), and overall depicted a more futuristic land. Although this wasn't dropped for lack of trying; a first draft by Rod Serling (he of The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery fame) brought many of these key elements over. The problem was that the budget simply wouldn't allow such grand effects, so things were scaled way back and made more primitive.

That may seem like a weakening choice, but it seemed to improve the film; it allowed for a larger world and, unless it was achieved with 2001-level effects, this approach would have dated Planet Of The Apes much faster and weakened the message it was trying to make.

It also better fit the nuclear-ravaged land that the twist inferred (which is, funnily enough, one of the key things from Serling's script carried over).

What other films had potentially disastrous early drafts? Shout out any we missed down in the comments.