Silent Bob Posted July 6, 2003 Share Posted July 6, 2003 Just thought this might make an interesting topic. Have you ever wondered what some movies would have been like if they ended up just like their directors originally envisioned? A few examples. The original draft for X-Men included Beast and the Blob, and even the possibility of Angel. Or how about this? What if Martin Scorsese had been able to make Gangs of New York back in the 70s like he wanted too. He says he would have cast the young Robert De Niro in the role that eventually went to Leonardo DiCraprio. Here's an interesting one. We all know that after the success of the original Star Wars, George Lucas envisioned an epic 9-part series and wrote rough story outlines for each part. But did you know how different that vision originally was? Return of the Jedi, particularly. Lucas' original story was a much darker quieter movie, rather like The Empire Strikes Back. The Empire was not to be defeated, in fact the Emperor himself wasn't supposed to appear in person until part 9. Luke and Leia weren't siblings, and there was no Death Star II. Most of the story was Luke and Leia's search for Han Solo, while Luke continued training in the Jedi arts along the way. The ending, maybe even more daring than the one in Empire, had Luke running back to Yoda to complete his training, Leia resuming her royal station as queen of what was left of the people of Alderaan, and the newly rescued Han Solo being killed in the final battle. This story stayed as it was until Lucas made Raiders of the Lost Ark and decided that the emphasis for the 6th part of the Star Wars saga should be on action, not, oh I dunno, emotional impact. Hence...The Return of the Jedi, a fairly mediocre sequel. George Lucas, fantastic visionary...not always such a great storyteller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted July 6, 2003 Share Posted July 6, 2003 Hmm...there was this one i read on a script site, think David Fincher (Fight Club, Seven, The Game) was lookin at this one tentatively called "The Sky is Falling" about a Vatican conspiracy, where a high up bishop discovers christs' ressurection was faked to maintain dominancy, and a church-ordained assasian was dispatched to keep the truth secert....sounded halfway interesting, but im assumin it was deemed a bit risque, maybe even for Artisan? There's been more than a few ive heard, like that Indiana Jones one you all swear is comin out one day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyLeakyBucket Posted July 6, 2003 Share Posted July 6, 2003 There was an article in a recent movie mag in the UK about casting decisions in famous films and who almost got to play some of the best known parts in history. I'll dig it up but th one that I remember... Gene Hackman (our very own Popeye Doyle) came very close to playing Hannibal Lector. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverend Jax Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 One common bit of knowledge Bob didn't add to his Star Wars story was part 6 was originally titled Revenge of the Jedi. That "The Sky Is Falling" one sounds really interesting. That does sound too risque for Artisan, or almost anyone else for that matter. Is it based on a book? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Bob Posted July 7, 2003 Author Share Posted July 7, 2003 One common bit of knowledge Bob didn't add to his Star Wars story was part 6 was originally titled Revenge of the Jedi. Actually it's been claimed after the fact that "Revenge of the Jedi" was the title they leaked so that they could easily spot pre-opening pirated merchandise. Unfortunately, though, I guess not everybody "got the memo" and there were a few legitimate "Revenge of the Jedi" posters and such printed before they noticed. Those're worth a helluva lot, as I recall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Bob Posted July 7, 2003 Author Share Posted July 7, 2003 And about The Sky is Falling - The "official rumor" (if you wanna believe those exist) is that this has been a pet project of Fincher's for quite a while. It's not based on a book. Fincher himself came up with the story and wrote the screenplay and (of course) planned to direct this before Fight Club. Trouble with getting production started (imagine that) caused him to shelf it for a while and he moved on to Fight Club. While he was making FC the script was passed around to just about every major studio. Of couse, every single one of them turned it down very quickly. And who can blame them? The plot is actually a lot more controvesial than you guys think. IC's only got half of the picture. The story - two priests discover archeological evidence that proves that God does not exist. They hope to use this evidence to prove to the world that Christianity is a fraud. But first they decide to go on a crime spree - killing, stealing, raping - comitting every sin they can think of because they know now that it doesn't matter (there's rumored to even be a shot written in where they snort cocaine off of a Bible). The Catholic church finds out about it and to protect their secret they unleash a "Christian Assassin", a convict who "found God" in prison" (an old rumor says that Bruce Willis was linked to this role). The chase and sacriligious carnage that follow can only be imagined because I can't really see this movie getting made. Personally I'm not sure if I mind this movie never getting made. I've got nothing against movies that stir up religious controversy. If it's done as satire (Dogma) or as a thought-provoking "what if" (The Last Temptation of Christ) it's fine, I usually enjoy it. If Fincher made a movie that dealt with what the world would be like if it was suddenly proved beyond a doubt that God did not exist, I'd be all for it. But this just sounds like it's going for more shocks than substance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Bob Posted July 7, 2003 Author Share Posted July 7, 2003 A couple more from the rumor bin. The first is a movie that unfortunately will probably end up being a "could have been" and the second I'm sure will be a "I wish it wasn't". Alien 5 - James Cameron recently gave an interview to the BBC about his thoughts on Terminator 3 (he liked it). They even got around to asking about Aliens, and his thoughts on the sequels to that (he hated Alien3, and that's his word choice "hate"). He said that he wants to "rectify" what they did in Alien3 when Alien 5 starts. Wait, what? Alien 5? Yes, Alien 5. When asked if the rumors about an Alien 5 are in fact true, and that Cameron is involved he answer "to an extent: yes" (whatever that means). "We're looking at doing another one. Something similiar to what we did with Aliens. A bunch of great characters, and of course Sigourney" he continued with. He also mentioned that he would like to find a role for Ah-nuld in it (I can't even imagine). How he's going to simply negate the plots of Alien3 and Alien: Resurrection, I don't know. Though the original story for Resurrection had Ripley waking up and realizing that everything in Alien3 was just a dream. That would be nice. By the way, this is all on top of Aliens Vs. Predator which seems to be finally getting made, under the helm of uber-videogame-to-film director Paul WS Anderson, who stepped down from two sequels of two of his previous films (Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and Mortal Kombat: Domination) in order to make Aliens Vs. Predator. Before you get your hopes up, though, those two bad movie sequels are still getting made as well, under different directors. And speaking of bad movie sequels! Anaconda 2: The Black Orchid - Seems Columbia/Tristar has decided to make a sequel to their hit...ok, their mediocre...fine, their absolutely horrible movie, Anaconda. No J-Lo this time (what a shame), in fact it's a complete cast of no names. I'm not even going to try to describe the plot here. Instead I'll just post a quote from "one of the film's writers" and let them describe it. "The story is essentially a good old fashioned jungle adventure about a scientific expedition that travels to the darkest jungles of Borneo in pursuit of a rare black orchid that blooms only once every seven years and just might, maybe, could hold the secret to immortality and is therefore worth a fortune to the pharmaceutical company sponsoring the expedition. When the snakes aren't present, human greed, ambition and murder hold the stage. And when the snakes start showing up, well, what the black orchid is really good for, it would seem, is turning big snakes into really, really huge snakes since, as we all know, Anacondas never stop growing, and the longer they live, the bigger they get and the more people they can eat". Fun! Original! Exciting! Sarcasm! I think I'll start taking bets now as to how many professional movie critics point out that there are no anacondas in Borneo in their reviews. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverend Jax Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 What's next? Last Action Hero 2: Laster Action Hero? Godzilla (USA) 2? Anyway, Actually it's been claimed after the fact that "Revenge of the Jedi" was the title they leaked so that they could easily spot pre-opening pirated merchandise. Unfortunately, though, I guess not everybody "got the memo" and there were a few legitimate "Revenge of the Jedi" posters and such printed before they noticed. Those're worth a helluva lot, as I recall. As I remember hearing it, the title used for pre-opening pirated merchancise was "Blue Harvest", and they even made "Blue Harvest" t-shirt for the production team of the movie to wear so that people who took pictures though that as the name of the movie. Revenge of the Jedi was Lucas's title, but Fox made him change it because it sounded to evil or violent or vengeful or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Bob Posted July 7, 2003 Author Share Posted July 7, 2003 Yeah "Blue Harvest (Horror Beyond Imagination)" was the title they worked under to keep insane fanboys with cameras off the set. But the first announced title was Revenge of the Jedi, supposedly for the reasons I mentioned (though the official reason for the change was because, according to Lucas, a "jedi would never take revenge"). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 Thanks for the backing on "Sky is falling"...i just cant help but think, with Fincher at the helm & Willis as the assassian, i cant see it being all shock, ya know? Ah well. I read somethin somewhere about an upcoming live-action Garfield movie. I hope that project joins this page soon. Also, there's a host of comic licenses that've been bought up - even talked about with actual casting calls - that never surfaced. Cameron's Spider-Man movie, once rumored to have Di Caprio as the lead & a CG Venom. yet another Crow sequel, directed by Rob Zombie, with Trent Reznor as the lead...Smith's infamous "Superman Lives", Bendis' "Jinx" and "Torso" licenses...Jeff Smith's animated "Bone" one woulda been really, really cool for those who've read the book. There's a bunch of em here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Bob Posted July 7, 2003 Author Share Posted July 7, 2003 I can help with a couple of those. Yes, there's a live-action Garfield in the works. It stars Breckin Meyer as Jon (after Jim Carrey turned it down) and Jennifer Love Hewitt as Dr. Liz Wilson (their vet). Taking over the role of Garfield's voice from the late Lorenzo Music is Bill Murray. Kinda fitting since Music did the voice for Murray's character in the cartoon version of Ghostbusters. Most of those comic movie rumors were the beginnings of actual movies. Of course there was Cameron's Spider-man script. Many of the story elements were adapted into Raimi's Spider-man, and changed around so much that Cameron no longer needs a credit. And yes, DiCaprio went after the role of Spider-man. I believe Rob Zombie's Crow sequel turned into the upcoming Crow movie that stars Edward Furlong. I doubt they'd give Zombie another shot at directing anything after his abyssmal House of 1000 Corpses. Smith's "Superman Lives" script was cannibalized beyond recognition into the current Superman project that Warner Bros is still trying to get off the ground. The latest director they're trying to get now (Tim Burton, McG, and Bret Ratner have all quit the project because it proved too difficult to get made) is Jonathan Frakes of Star Trek fame. He's a competent director (see First Contact if you don't believe me) and could do good, but I foresee a whole lot of disastrous studio interference. No word on the Bendis projects or Bone (yeah, that'd be cool). Those all fit in this topic at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverend Jax Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 Well, it seems New Line Cinema currently holds the rights to "The Sky Is Falling" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Bob Posted July 7, 2003 Author Share Posted July 7, 2003 Yeah New Line probably still has the rights. They're the ones who originally had it. They had Gore Verbinski lined up to direct it (probably when Fincher moved on to Fight Club) and wanted to have it done for a '99 release, but they got cold feet, and I imagine that's when they started passing it around for someone else to buy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverend Jax Posted July 8, 2003 Share Posted July 8, 2003 Man, even if it can't be made into a movie, Fincher should rework the script into a book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ganny McVagflaps Posted July 15, 2003 Share Posted July 15, 2003 Damn it, Silent Bob - where was Clerks 2: Hardly Clerkin'? Now that woulda been a movie. Sure J&SBSB was fun and all but it was a bit bubble gum for the brainish for me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverend Jax Posted July 15, 2003 Share Posted July 15, 2003 I think Clerks 2:Hardly Clerkin' turned into Clerks: The Animated Movie. In the works now. A second live action Clerk would have been sweet though. Let's hope the animated movie is up to the standard of the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Bob Posted July 15, 2003 Author Share Posted July 15, 2003 Actually Hardly Clerkin' turned into Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Though I'm sure there are also some remnants of it in Clerks: SellOut Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ganny McVagflaps Posted July 16, 2003 Share Posted July 16, 2003 Fuck the 'toon, after I saw DOGMA in the movies (and yes as a Smith-boy I waited 'til the end) I figured we'd get a live action Clerks sequel. Yes the cartoon was great....but the best parts come from the flashback episode, the temple of doom/bad news bears episdoe followed by the ultimate: "WHO IS DRIVING CAR???!" I still woulda loved a live action Dante and Randal movie. I don't care it's till KS's best movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Bob Posted July 16, 2003 Author Share Posted July 16, 2003 Oh my god, Bear is driving, how can that be? Kevin has hinted that he may reconsider JASBSB being the last View Askew live action film. He says he might do another Jay and Bob film as a reward for Mewes if he finally manages to clean up. What the story would be, and if it's ever going to happen are all still very much up in the air. But I imagine you'd see more live action Dante and Randal, if it does happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ganny McVagflaps Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 Just thought of another one Ghostbusters 3. Dan Ackroyd went to Sony (who currently own the rights) around two years ago asking for $100 to make it. The story was going to be that hell rises in NYC and the Ghostbusters have to come out of retirement to save the day. Now that woulda been sweet... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Bob Posted July 17, 2003 Author Share Posted July 17, 2003 Yeah, it would have been. Amazingly Sony (not always the smartest film company) didn't think a third Ghostbusters would be profitable enough to allow that big of a budget. Really, though, if they ever did a third Ghostbusters, I wish they'd do it for cheaper, and use all the old optical effects instead of cgi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverend Jax Posted July 18, 2003 Share Posted July 18, 2003 That would never happen. Just the suggestion of using old 80s effects for a sci-fi/action/adventure/fantasy type movie will get a room or movie executive rolling ont he floor in laughter. The concept for Ghostbuster 3, if I recall, was to hav ethe old gang back, but a new rookie generation too (I think Will Smith was considered, but you know, the likes of him, cool hip, in guys). That way there would be intergeneration conflict. The youngins would have methods the old guys though were too reckless or cocky, the youngin would think the old guys were to set in their ways, blah blah blah. That was the pitch anyway. Could be cool, but could be lame too. Maybe T3's success will get some studio exec thinking sequels to old movies aren't as big a risk as they once thought (remaking old movies is the trend, not sequels), which would probably result is some really cool sequels and some real disgraces. We'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Bob Posted July 18, 2003 Author Share Posted July 18, 2003 Yeah it was a lame concept, but then again, so were the first two (an ancient god returns and unleashes a giant marshmallow man? a river of slime?). It was the characters and the writing that made the movies as great as they were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 Re-reading it, this was a really cool thread, i forgot all bout it when i made a Ghostbusters 3 one i should merge with it. So, what about comic ones that never made it, like the Cameron Spidey film with Leo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ganny McVagflaps Posted June 2, 2005 Share Posted June 2, 2005 With Arnie as Doc Ock as well! I had an interview with Stan Lee on an MTV Europe late night show where he talked all about the would-be flick on video tape way back when. Thank God that never happened. Raimi forever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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