We all love going to the Movies, especially with the lockdown being eased and many cinemas reopening. Throughout time, we have watched and adored many movies that have come to change the face of the Movie industry as we know it. However, there are many of these films that went through development Hell and nearly would have never been made, which may have also changed movie culture as we know it. In this feature, in yearly order, we’re going to have a look at the movies that almost got cancelled.
THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)
Released just before the start of
World War 2, the Wizard of Oz is one of the first Musicals to hit the big
screen and one of the first movies to suspend our beliefs through whimsical and
exciting scenes and sets. It’s development, on the other hand, was not so
magical. Five directors were involved with the movie and 17 writers were asked
to write and change the script. Most of them are uncredited. The Tin Man was
also recast mid filming too; Bubby Elsen was replaced by Jack Haley as the former
was allergic to Aluminium. Other cast members had experienced many moments that
would traumatise them later. The dog that was cast as Toto ruined every scene
and many of them had to be retaken with a new Toto and Margaret Hamilton, who
plays the Wickedest Witch of the West, was severely burned during filming one
of the scenes. Even though many of these events nearly cancelled the movie, the
Wizard of Oz would manage to be released in its 2 hour running time.
This move was one of George Lucas’
earliest movies, he makes another appearance in this list later. American
Graffiti was a movie based in 1960s America and deals with the hardness of
growing up as a teenager. This difficulty would be translated during
development too. Many crew members were arrested for secretly growing and
smoking Marijuana while filming, One actor ended up hospitalised because of
allergies to Walnuts, Harrison Ford was arrested because he started up a bar
fight and George Lucas’ hotel room was set on fire. Because of this, Universal
were about to release the movie as a Television special, but changed their
minds later, even though many violent events took place threatening the movie
to be unfinished.
Steven
Spielberg is also not alone when it comes to having to battle against
cancellation and Jaws was the closest. Through filming, they used mechanical
sharks to make Jaws as realistic as possible in the 70s. However, they were
expensive and led to the movie being delayed. The main actors, Richard Dreyfuss
and Robert Shaw also became enemies as they would feud against each other
during the 159 days of filming. When the final scene was being filmed, the ship
actually started to sink. Luckily, Jaws survived being cut and worked wonders
for Universal. It even defined the term ‘Summer Blockbuster’ as it was one of
the first movies to entertain the World during the Summer holidays.
OMEN (1976)
From the people that gave us the
unnerving Exorcist in 1973, The Omen was set to be another spook in Cinemas.
These spooks, in a turn of events, would case the production to be infamously
known as the most cursed movie of all time. One executive believed that the
movie was cursed by the Devil himself. Two months before the movie was set to
be filmed, one actor’s son shot himself; the same actor would go through trauma
as the plane he was flying was struck by lightning. Even the executive
producer’s plane was struck too by lightning. After the crew left a hotel after
filming was done, the IRA bombed the exact hotel just after they left. A baboon
used in a scene was eaten by Lions after filming. But what was the scariest
moment that nearly cancelled the movie? The whole crew tried to hire a plane to
use that was eventually switched, crashed and killed every single person on
board. Could this be the works of Damien himself? And how did the movie manage
to survive these horrible events and secure a place in Cinemas? The studio was
glad that the movie was finished and released it. Thankfully, it has become of
the most successful horror movies of the 1970s and has gone to inspire many
other horror movies such as Halloween.
Yes. A whole cinematic universe would have never happened if Star Wars was cancelled. No Disney Takeover, no huge Merchandise, no Lego crossovers and Darth Vader would have not been a classic villain. The cast & crew were nicknaming the movie a ‘Children’s film’ and the special effects crew (Pixar was one of them) were inexperienced. After a terrible first test-screening, Lucas went into the editing room and fixed Star Wars. Because of this, ‘A New Hope’ achieved commercial and critical acclaim, changing the face of Science Fiction. Lucas was on holiday when the movie was released to get away from the trauma of Making Star Wars & American Graffiti; when he got a call from Fox that the movie was a success, he was relieved and agreed to end the saga with 2 more legendary movies.
From the Director of the Godfather
series, Francis Ford Coppola made one of the most psychological war movies ever
released, and it was nearly napalmed to cancellation. Its production and
filming was like stepping into the centre of Hell. Coppola wanted the movie to
be as realistic as possible to the Vietnam war and funded all of its budget.
The rainfall nearly flooded the set, actors such as Marlon Brando and Martin
sheen suffered many tropical diseases while shooting; Sheen would even suffer a
heart attack too. Even though the budget was through the roof, Apocalypse was
finally released and cemented Coppola as a legendary director; he would later
work on his adaptation of Dracula in 1992.
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This is one of many movies that have
gained a cult following years after its release, and Harrison Ford is here
again proving that he has gone through many traumatic experiences of being in
movies that were close to being shut down. Bladerunner went through many
rewrites. Ridley Scott decided to direct, but he had to work with an American
crew instead of a British crew with Alien. Even Ford was bored and was
considering dropping out entirely. Bladerunner is the closest to ever be nearly
cancelled as while they were filming the final scene, the heads at Warner Bros
had arrived and intended to shut down all the production. The Movie, luckily
was finished and went on to do moderately in its first release until many years
later now as it is hailed as a cult sci-fi movie. Its sequel would be released
in 2017 with Ryan Gosling starring in it.
BACK TO
THE FUTURE (1985)
The 1980s was a golden era for movies. Back to the Future was one of them, and nearly went under if it was not for Universal. Four years ago before its release, Robert Zemeckis pitched the movies to over 40 studios, including Disney who believed it was too Dirty as it relied on Marty McFly going back in time to get his Mother & Father to hook up together. Universal, known for releasing movies that nearly never made it, gave the movie a chance. That chance made Back to the Future a joy to watch and did perfect in the box office and critics, spawning many time travel movies such as the Bill & Ted trilogy. If Zemeckis’ other movie Romancing the Stone flopped, this movie might have never been made or released.
WATERWORLD (1995)
A big budget can kill a movie. Tim
Burton’s Superman Lives was cancelled due to a high budget exceeding $200
million. Strangely enough, Kevin Costner’s Waterworld survived this fate,
through many trials and errors. A man made Island was placed in Hawaii and was
very expensive to sustain. The actors & actresses also faced extreme
problems. Costner nearly died twice during filming, once when in a scene where
he was drowning and during a thunderstorm. Tina Majorino was stung three times
by Jellyfishes and two stuntmen were injured during filming scenes. Just as
Waterworld was on the verge of being shut, Joss Whedon was bought in to
simplify the movie and the movie eventually saw the light of day.
Not even animated movies are safe
from the perils of being cancelled and Toy Story was nearly one of them. Pixar
were dead set on making the World’s First 3D animated movie to be released in
Cinemas. Despite their dreams, they were in serious trouble with Disney when it
came to their scripts and ideas. One script featured Woody being a narcissistic
& obnoxious character who would plot to destroy Buzz Lightyear and was seen
as a ‘Jerk’, according to Woody’s voice actor Tom Hanks. Disney were
considering pulling out of its deal with Pixar as the production of Toy Story
was in disarray and were close to replacing the entire movie to only release
Pocahontas for a 1995 release. Instead, Pixar & John Lasseter were given
one more chance and wrote a new script that we all know and love. Finally, the
movie was release and became the first 3D animated movie to hit the Silver
screen, while gaining critical acclaim and success in the Box office. If Toy
Story had been cancelled, Pixar would have been shut down and Disney might have
chosen Blue Sky studios instead, many years before they bought Fox.
TITANIC
(1997)
James
Cameron’s most important movie ever created, Bar None. Titanic featured,
romance, suspense, heartbreak, action and thriller in one movie based on a Ship
that was deemed unsinkable. The production of the movie also seemed to fall
into the same fate as the Titanic itself. Cameron placed DiCaprio & Winslet
in uncomfortable temperatures, especially the scene after the ship sank. Kate
Winslet was first excited to act in the movie; later, she would reply that she
would never work again with James Cameron except when she is offered a high
amount of money. The movie was over 3 hours and 30 minutes, making it one of
the longest running movies to be released. The higher ups at Paramount forced
Cameron to cut the movie to a comfortable 2 hours; but Cameron refused by
replying "You want to cut my movie? You're going to
have to fire me! You want to fire me? You're going to have to kill me!".
Paramount decided to keep Cameron’s promise and it worked spectacularly. It
became the most grossing movie of all time with $2 billion until Cameron would
beat the record himself with Avatar in 2009.
THE EMPEROR’S NEW GROOVE (2000)
Just like Pixar with Toy Story, Disney also experienced
problems during their long reign as an influential animation company. Out of
all Disney movies, The Emperor’s New Groove was the closest to be disposed. The
movie was originally going to be a dramatic and serious musical under the name
‘Kingdom of the Sun’ and would have still be set in Incan Peru. The movie’s
plot was going to be based on the ‘Prince & the Pauper’, where a farmer and
a Prince swapped roles due to how similar they looked; Owen Wilson was
originally going to play a young Pacha, there was going to be a new Disney
Princess named Nina, Sting was chosen to write the musical numbers and Roger
Allers (Co-Director of the Lion King) was set to direct the movie. After trying
to pitch the movie, with 25% of the movie being completed, Disney believed that
the plot was confusing, the pacing was too fast and felt that many characters
& songs could be eradicated. Because of this, the movie was changed from a
serious musical to a light hearted comedy. This made Roger Allers quit his role
as director. John Goodman replaced Owen Wilson, Mark Dindal became director,
Sting decided to stay on despite losing many of his songs during production and
the movie became a joy to work on. Because of this, the movie finally got
released and did not do commercially well. Since then, the movie has
experienced success with critical acclaim and DVD & streaming sales
exceeding Disney’s expectations. Because of this, The Emperor’s New Groove has
become another classical Disney movie, all without the need to follow the same
as others before it.
MAD MAX FURY ROAD (2015)
Mad Max is a franchise that has shown us that Australia can
also shine in the Movie Industry. It is why Mel Gibson has achieved a lot
during his time as an actor & director. Its original director, George
Miller, decided to try and give the series a new life for the modern
generation. This would truly be one ‘Fury Road’. Originally set to release in
2007, even when no production was ready, it was halted because of the release
of Happy Feet. The movie would later start production in 2009, with Tom Hardy
& Charlize Theron being casted. Both the main actor & actress would not
get along with each other. Miller also wanted the movie to be realistic with
real explosions and other real scenes, in the middle of the Scorching desert of
Namibia. In a remarkable turn of events, the movie was finally released in 2015
to acclaim and box office success and both Hardy & Theron apologised to
each other, despite the movie nearly being pulled due to yet another set of
horrible events in filming.
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