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Let's talk about the strange first drafts of movies. 

Frankly there's enough changes in the early Star Wars scripts to make a whole nother topic just on them. 

I also think the original ending of Clerks where Dante is killed by a robber is pretty well know. 

Here one I just found out.  In an early draft of Back to the Future, Doc Brown was a bitter cynical old failure.  Their actions when they go back in tim result in the 80s turning into some strange retro futuristic timeline.  Also, Rock and Roll is never invented.

We missed a really awesome version of Twilight.  (Yes, at one point Twilight was going to be cool.)  It was going to feature Edward as a vampire hunter that worked for the FBI and Bella as a badass vampire.  It was going to be an action movie where vampires fought SWAT teams in tree tops.  Basically nothing like the actual books, but I don't think that would be a problem this time.

The  5,000 fingers of Dr T has way more than I can list, but was pretty disturbing!

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045464/trivia?ref_=tttr_ql_trv_1 (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045464/trivia?ref_=tttr_ql_trv_1)

The first draft of Purple Rain when it was still called Dreams saw Prince's parents both die (murder & suicide) leaving behind a shattered Prince. The script was changed when director Albert Magnoli came aboard. Prince wanted to shock the audience "just like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" but Magnoli convinced him not to make the movie that dark and disturbing.

Will Smith movie Hancock, was originally called Tonight He Comes and had the storyline of an ordinary housewife being stalked by a superhero, who eventually rapes her and kills her when he ejaculates and the force of it blows a hole through her back.

Pretty Woman was written as a serious drama about prostitution and ended up with the businessman dumping her at the roadside when she was unable to stop her drug habit.

not sure if this counts but HENRY PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER was originally going to be a documentary about pro wrestling. When a museum owner who'd agreed to let them have access to his wrestling memrobilia suddenly doubled his asking fee at the last moment, they decided to make a horror film instead!

That's why I love movies!  Stories like that are what fuels MST3K

Not exactly bizarre, but due to budget cuts, Day of the Dead was originally going to be very different than the version we got.  The original script is available to read on the 'net.

Smokey and the Bandit 3 was a mess, but I've read that it originally was going to be some really convoluted mess called Smokey Is The Bandit, where Jackie Gleason lost his marbles and played both parts or something. :buggedout:

The first draft of SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939) had Peter Lorre as Dr.Frankenstein. And Lugosi's Ygor part was small. But director Rowland V. Lee liked Lugosi, who's per for week by Universal was dirt cheap, expanded the part so Lugosi, who was broke in 1938 due to the British ban on horror movies, some extra income. As a result, Lugosi stole the show.

(https://i.imgur.com/befYu1h.jpg) (https://lunapic.com)

Not really a famous movie, I guess, but DIRTY DANCING 2: HAVANA NIGHTS was originally a very serious historical drama set during the Cuban revolution. The producers later added dirty dancing.

Battlestar Galactica started life as a pure Star Wars clone, close enough to cause a lawsuit.

Smokey Is The Bandit was actually filmed with Jackie Gleason playing both the sheriff and Smokey and preview audiences got confused so the film was re shot.

just done some foolproof 'internet fact checking' (erm, yeah), but it does apparently seem that at one point BACK TO THE FUTURE was suggested to be renamed SPACEMAN FROM PLUTO (because no one would want to see a movie with 'Future' in the title?), and Marty McFly was going to be on the verge of suicide before discovering a time machine that was either a fridge or a car-wash.

The Truman Show was originally The Malcolm Show, and it was a much darker thriller. 

Monsters Inc was originally about a middle aged man who was depressed and stuck in a rut discovering a book of monsters he drew as a child.  The monsters would then come to life and reveal themselves to be his unresolved childhood fears. 

I read that the first drafts of The Room and Troll 2 made it seem like they were actually going to be good movies   :wink:

 :wink: :wink:

Beetlejuice wasn't originally a wacky prankster played my Keaton.  Originally he was going to be a batwinged demon that took the form of a Middle Eastern man.  Also he wasn't going to try to scare the family out of the house and marry Winona Ryder.  He was going to try to rape Ryder and murder the family. 

^ That's the version I wanna see!  :thumbup:

Alien 3 was supposed to be set on a man-made wooden planet inhabited by monks.

Considering what a convoluted mess of a production it became, that probably would've made more sense.........

In an early draft of It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey found (& killed!) an evil version of himself.

If I remember correctly, the original script for DEATH BECOMES HER was much more darker.

The original script for Gremlins was more gruesome, with graphic death scenes (Billy's mom decapitated by gremlin) and what not. Also, in the script Billy was 12 years old, which explains Zach Galligan's friendship with 12 year old Corey Feldman which seemed kind of weird.

watching the commentary track to Luigi Cozzi's PAGANINI HORROR (1989)

started out life as a straightforward bio-pic of Paganini, ended up a supernatural slasher  :teddyr:

A very early teaser trailer for Alien 3 indicated that it would be set on Earth.

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk_x9W1xKng#)

As one of the comments on this video sez:
"Welcome to: How Not To Make Movies 101!
Lesson 1: FINISH THE G*DDAMN SCRIPT BEFORE YOU TEASE!!!"

Glad they recycled that script into a Futurama episode!

Someone should pitch this idea to Mr. Burton to make today. He's got nothing better to do...

not a famous movie but I liked this bluray commentary track revelation:

Fred Olen Ray says MOON IN SCORPIO (1987) was originally supposed to be about a vietnam vet being haunted by the ghost of a skeleton. This version was abandoned and the film was changed to be a slasher set aboard a boat. yet scenes from the original storyline version remain, therefore making not much sense.

he also said the original version had no reference to the title, so he had one of the actors repeatedly say "The moon is in scorpio" a lot, for no apparent reason.

I read on the IMDB that it was supposed to be about some Asian cobra demon, but that ran into budget issues...
I also read that producers went back & re-edited it just as soon as Fred Olen Ray finished it & went on vacation, causing it to make even less sense than it already did...

From the documentary that came with the blu ray movie, we kinda sorta got it back with Land Of The Dead (2005), although the original script of Day Of The Dead (1985) is still much superior to that homage 2005 film.

At one point in Freddy vs Jason, Freddy and Jason were to meet in a boxing ring in hell.  Ted Bundy would be the ref and Lee Harvey Oswald and Hitler (among others) where in the audience. 


Originally in the Sixth Sense, Bruce Willi's character was a crime scene photographer and his son keep having visions of a serial killers victims.