9 Rejected Ideas That Were Recycled In Other Movies

2. The Original Truman Show Became Gattaca

Originally In... The Truman Show

Back in 1991, Andrew Niccol wrote a one-page treatment for what would become The Truman Show (then called The Malcolm Show, rather less glamorously), which was more like a serious sci-fi thriller than the comedy we'd all get to see with Jim Carrey seven years later.

When Peter Weir signed on to direct in 1995, he decided that it needed a rewrite: "where he [Niccol] had it depressing, I could make it light. It could convince audiences they could watch a show in this scope 24/7." That prompted Niccol to rewrite the script 12 times and mould it into the Carrey-friendly, lighter version we ended up with.

But he didn't scrap the ideas. Instead, he channelled the darker elements of his story into a similar focus on a dystopian, tech-obsessed world and wrote Gattaca with them, which ultimately came out a year before The Truman Show.