A lot goes into making a movie. There’s the budget, the casting, production design, and about a million and one other things to consider.
Success isn’t guaranteed. It’s a balancing act where at any moment, everything can all come crashing down.
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With that in mind, here are 10+ movies that almost never got made.
‘Back To The Future’
According to co-writer Bob Gale , Back To The Future was rejected by every major studio in Hollywood.
In fact, Universal Studios only signed on to produce the film after the success of director Robert Zemecki’s Romancing The Stone .
‘Psycho’
Nowadays Psycho is regarded as a cinematic masterpiece. Not only was it a career-defining film for director Alfred Hitchcock, but it was also the birth of the ‘slasher picture’.
At the time, Paramount Pictures wanted nothing to do with the film. They called it “disgusting”.
Hitchcock took a major pay cut to help fund the film; otherwise, it would never have never been made.
‘Star Wars’
Right from the very beginning, Star Wars was plagued with uncertainty .
The film was openly mocked during productions, there were countless delays – even the CGI special effects didn’t work.
Thank goodness for the perseverance of George Lucas!
‘The Exorcist’
You can probably understand how in 1973, production companies were hesitant to endorse a film about the possession of a 12-year-old girl.
But aside from studio pushback, a number of very strange incidents occurred while on set. These included: fire, injury, and even the deaths of two cast members.
To this day, many believe the film is cursed.
‘Dumb & Dumber’
It turns out that Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels weren’t the first choices to play Harry & Lloyd.
In fact, they weren’t even the Farrelly Brothers’ second choices.
The roles were turned down by every major comedian at the time; including Steve Martin and Martin Short.
‘Apocalypse Now’
When asked about his time on set during the production of Apocalypse Now , director Francis Ford Coppolla had this to say :
“We were in the jungle. We had too much money. We had too much equipment. And little by little, we went insane.”
‘Jaws’
Steven Spielberg needed a lot more than just a “bigger boat.” He needed a miracle.
Jaws was plagued with production woe and was almost shut down on several occasions .
The script wasn’t even finished when filming began, there were constant issues with the animatronic shark, and castmates Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss HATED each other.
‘The Shining’
Stanley Kubrick nearly drove the entire cast of The Shining insane. The infamous director was well known for his perfectionism but reportedly became irate during filming.
Actress Shelley Duval would later reveal that her hair began falling out from all the undue stress
‘Titanic’
James Cameron became known as “The Scariest Man in Hollywood” after production on Titanic .
The director was nearly hauled off the project after doubling the film’s budget.
There was also an unfortunate incident involving a disgruntled employee poisoning the crew with PCP .
‘Gremlins’
Joe Dante’s vision for Gremlins was ahead of the times. Unfortunately, it was also ahead of the current technology available.
There was absolutely no CGI or animatronics used for the filming of Gremlins .
Were it not for their impromptu mastery of puppetry , the film would have never gotten off the ground.
‘The Wizard Of Oz’
Yet another film with its fair share of urban legends.
For starters, the original Tin-Man, Buddy Ebsen, had a violent reaction to his silver face paint. It landed him in the hospital, forcing production to recast the role entirely.
‘Chinatown’
Director Roman Polanski’s feud with Chainatown ‘s Faye Dunaway has become the stuff of legend.
Not only was Polanksi known to be verbally abusive to all of his stars, but he went so far as to deny Dunaway bathroom breaks.
There’s even an unsubstantiated rumor that claims the actress hurled urine in Polanski’s face!
‘Blade Runner’
Director Ridley Scott had difficulties filming in Los Angeles.
Production shoots would constantly run late, Scott was over budget, and he even managed to tick off his lead actor, Harrison Ford.
Reflecting on the film, Ford was quoted as saying , “I didn’t really find it that physically difficult—I thought it was mentally difficult.”
‘Pulp Fiction’
When Quentin Tarantino began shopping around his script for Pulp Fiction , it was met with heavy criticism.
TriStar pictures reportedly called the film ” too demented ” and chose to pass entirely on the project.
Tarantino’s only offer came from Miramax Films.
‘Toy Story’
The first cut of Toy Story was supposedly an absolute mess. Disney felt that the story was ” too soft ” and was ready to pull the plug.
Thankfully, Pixar founder John Lassetter was able to revise the film and it became a huge success.
