8 Famous Movies That Started Out In Completely Different Genres
6. The Truman Show Began Life As A Dark & Depressing Sci-Fi Thriller
Though there are dramatic elements inherent to Peter Weir's 1998 masterpiece The Truman Show, which probably contains Jim Carrey's best performance to date, most people would cite the film as a comedy.
Weirdly, though, The Truman Show started out as a completely different film in a totally different genre - one called "The Malcolm Show," which was essentially a dark and depressing thriller with science-fiction trappings.
The idea came from a speculative script by writer Andrew Niccol, who envisioned Truman - or, uh, "Malcolm" - as a paranoid guy living in a strange, heightened version of New York City that he can't seem to believe in (which, just like in the final film, would have turned out to be the set of a reality TV show).
This initial version of The Truman Show lacked the comedic edge of the now famous film, and - according to Weir - would have been a lot more surreal and artistically-minded had he not pushed Niccol to write a new, softer, funnier version.
Across the span of sixteen drafts, The Truman Show slowly morphed from that of an anxious thriller into a more breezy, comic film - without losing any dramatic weight.