10 AMAZING Movies That Were Almost NOT Made

Number Ten: Cleopatra
Everything about the production of this 1963 film was big from the practical set pieces to the stars themselves.
With Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton at the marquee, it is inconceivable to even think
that someone almost turned this masterpiece of cinema down.
However , Cleopatra almost never did see the light of the silver screen because of the
magnitude of the project.
Produced by 20th Century Fox, the film was given a budget of $2 million to cover everything
from filming to paying the cast and crew.
Unfortunately, the budget spiralled out of control and ballooned to $4 million with $1
million going straight to Elizabeth Taylor.
Director Rouben Mamoulian left the production and was replaced by Joseph L Mankievitz which,
The film which was to be shot in London, with the elaborate sets we are familiar with, production later
on transferred to Rome which, again, caused more delays.
Eventually, the production was completed and released in cinemas and cost Fox a whopping
$31 million ($240 million in today’s equivalent).
Even though it was a massive hit, it nearly destroyed 20th Century Fox as it was one of
the most expensive movies ever produced in the history of cinema.
Number Nine: The Shining
Stanley Kubrick is notoriously known for being a perfectionist on set.
So much so that during the course of filming the adaptation of Stephen King’s Novel,
The Shining, he drove actors Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall to their breaking points.
Undoubtedly, Kubrick’s eccentricities brought us cinema gems such as A Clockwork Orange
and Eyes Wide Shut, his treatment of his actors in The Shining was not particularly stellar.
It was rumoured that during the course of production, Jack Nicholson himself would throw
out newly delivered scripts arguing that Kubrick would change things up anyway – something
that the director has taken much liberties with during filming – and that he did not
want to waste his time reading and learning his cues.
However, it was Shelley Duvall who got the shorter end of Kubrick’s method.
In one of the iconic scenes of the film where Nicholson’s character is breaking down a
bathroom door with an ax, Duvall was not completely briefed on the scene; so when the cameras
started to roll and a giant ax was hacking the bathroom door to pieces, what we see in
poor Shelley Duvall’s face was genuine terror.
The whole experience of filming the entire movie was incredibly stressful to Duvall that
she was constantly ill and severely stressed that her hair began falling out.
Number Eight: Apocalypse Now There is nothing better to describe the production
of this movie than the word “Apocalypse” itself.
Fraught with problems and disasters from beginning to end, the Academy Award winning Vietnam
War film caused director Francis Ford Coppola so much stress that the film’s production
itself warranted its own documentary.
After his monumental success with The Godfather, Coppola decided to make this classic war movie
and funding it himself.
Wanting to make the film as realistic as possible, he flew his production team and the cast all
the way to The Philippines.
Unfortunately, since the country was known for its monsoons and typhoons, production
ended up cancelling a significant amount of shooting days because of terrible weather
conditions and, at one point, having to rebuild their sets after a typhoon mercilessly smashed
through it.
As if the weather was uncooperative enough, when actor Marlon Brando was flown in for
his parts, he was reported to be unprepared and overweight for the role.
Being known for his occasional tantrums and diva-issues, Brando began suggesting different
scenes and treatments for his character that resulted in large chunks of the script to
be rewritten.
Also, filming conditions were so stressful that Martin Sheen had a severe breakdown that
brought him on the edge of a heart attack.
Despite the ordeals, Apocalypse Now was completed and released and Coppola had only this to
say later on: “We were in the jungle.
We had too much money.
We had too much equipment.
And little by little, we went insane.”
Number Seven: Blade Runner Based on Philip K Dick’s novel “Do Androids
Dream of Electric Sheep?” this movie has become a cult classic for Sci-fi lovers everywhere
after its initial release.
Before the directorial reins were taken by Ridley Scott, the film’s script reportedly
went through several re-writes – even ending up being shelved for a bit – because it
did not satisfy Philip K Dick’s standards
Also, prior to Blade Runner, Scott had filmed a successful sci-fi horror film called ALIEN
with Sigourney Weaver in the UK.
While the genre is within Scott’s realm, he was not at all familiar with working in
Los Angeles, let alone with a completely American production team.
In one interview, while filming Blade Runner, Scott made odd comments about his preference
in working with a UK production team.
Of course this comment did not sit well with his American team and it nearly sparked a mutiny that could
have potentially de-rail the project once again.
Clashes between Scott and his crew extended to members of the cast.
Harrison Ford was reported to not being a happy camper – being visibly irritated and
bored on set - and it was captured in one of the scenes in the film’s final cut.
Luckily for the film, the last shots were made just before producers walked on set to
shut down the project.
Number Six: Groundhog Day Recognized by many film buffs as one of the
greatest American movies ever made, Groundhog Day has since left an indelible mark in popular
culture to this very day.
With the success of films like Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, and Stripes, the Harold Ramis-Bill
Murray team up was comedy gold in the industry.
However, when production for Groundhog Day began, things began to fall apart between
Murray and Ramis eventually breaking their friendship apart.
Murray was going through a divorce at the time of production which added a lot more
tension on set because he was emotionally on edge.
It was also not helpful that Ramis and Murray could not agree on what the film was all about.
On one side, Murray wanted a more serious tone to the film but Ramis argued that they
should stick with traditional comedy since it was a formula that has worked for them
in past films.
This exasperation led to Murray calling Ramis day and night to the point of harassing the
director.
Eventually, Dan Rubin, the film’s screenwriter, had to step in to mediate.
Groundhog Day was eventually completed and released, ending up as a major success in
the box office.
Sadly, this was to be Murray and Ramis’ final collaboration as the experience terribly
strained and severed their relationship.
Number Five: Titanic The production of James Cameron’s Academy
Award winning film Titanic almost sunk like the historic ship itself.
One of the main reasons why the production was almost halted: Water.
Well water
Yes, water.
a lot of water
While we have all be in awe of Cameron’s films, he was – allegedly – not a pleasant
person to work with.
During filming, Cameron seemed to care little for his cast when he would subject them to
a lot of water, sometimes in freezing temperatures.
Not only the cast almost always wet during filming was according to the New York times
They also had to deal with “a 300-decibel screamer… with a megaphone and walkie-talkie, swooping
down into people’s faces on a 162 ft crane
Even more unsettling was that an angry member of the crew spiked everyone’s lobster soup
with a hallucinogenic drug.
because of that 50 people were rushed to the emergency room, including Cameron.
As things kept turning for the worst, the press had a field day to the point that they
were predicting that the film will not be released due to the chaos everyone was going
through at production.
Number Four: Toy Story Movies heavy with CGI aren’t entirely a
new thing in 1995 but it was quite a new experience for the then newly acquired partner of Disney
Studios, Pixar.
However, at the beginning of the project, Pixar was having trouble agreeing to terms
set by Disney.
In fact, Pixar was averted to the idea of telling the conventional fairy stories that
Disney has made so much money from.
What Pixar wanted was a completely different kind of storytelling that involved “real
characters” with flaws that can equally entertain the public as the conventional Disney
fare.
Initially, Disney wanted human characters for Toy Story.
Yes.
Humans playing the main roles.
Disney was also reported to suggesting it to be a musical.
The idea did not sit well with Pixar and the two studios went back and forth with plot
treatments and revisions to the point that Disney was already prepared to shut down the
project because Disney did not like Pixar’s ideas and did not get their way.
Fortunately for us, Pixar took a stand and discarded Disney’s checklist.
Ultimately, Disney gave the green light and Toy Story has become one of the most successful
Disney-Pixar movies ever
Number Three
Back to the Future
It’s impossible to imagine living in a world where we did not have Doc Brown, Marty McFly,
and the Delorian.
Thankfully, the universe got to its senses and gave us Back to the Future!
But yes.
We came so close to not having Back to the Future in cinemas ever because during the
initial pitch of the movie, Columbia Pictures – where it was first presented – canned
the idea because it was not “sexual” enough.
But it was the eighties after all and gratuitous nudity was quite popular in films even though
they did not need them.
So over the next four years after Columbia’s rejection, the writers hopped from one studio
to another; even pitching the story to Disney who declined to produce it because of the
whole Marty and his mom plot twist.
It was eventually brought to Steven Spielberg, a good friend of Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis,
who took it to Universal and, as they say, the rest is history!
Number Two: The Lord of the Rings It was One Film to Rule them all but the journey
into producing it and releasing it in theaters was as burdensome and filled with twists and
turns as the source material itself.
The Lord of the Rings is one of the most successful trilogies and several Academy Awards under
its belt.
Initially, Jackson pitched the idea to Miramax and, from the get go, wanted a trilogy to
extensively cover each book without having to gloss over the already dense plot.
At that time, Harvey Weinstein, was open to the idea under the condition that Jackson
condense his trilogy into one movie
It was a “Take it or Leave it” condition and luckily Jackson left it.
Later on, after Jackson filmed a 30-minute “Behind the scenes of behind the scenes”
documentary about his plan to film The Lord of the Rings, he was able to land the deal
he was hoping for and signed with New Line Cinema.
Of course had Jackson made the deal with Miramax, we would have never had a trilogy on an epic
scale as memorable as the one we have come to enjoy.
Number One: Star Wars So a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away
George Lucas may have never produced one of the most influential sci-fi trilogies of the
20th Century.
However, it was not difficult to imagine studios giving Lucas a firm “No” during
a time when Hollywood was spending more on movies that are either about gangsters or
war.
There simply was no room for science fiction after Star Trek’s success when it premiered
Producers did not believe that there was a market to sell Lucas’ idea.
After being passed around from one studio to the next including Universal and United
Artists, Lucas’ space epic finally landed 20th Century Fox who was willing to take the
risk and produced the first instalment of the original series.
But Lucas was not out of the asteroids field yet.
During the course of filming, budget became a big problem and Lucas had to cut down on
many of his plans.
For example, the Cantina scene was supposed to be filled with bizarre looking aliens and
space creatures.
Instead, to make his budget fit and not risk being shut down by the studio, it was filled
with people mostly in cheap Halloween masks that were altered to make them look even a
little like space aliens.
Morale was also at an all-time low because not all of the actors or the production team
believed that the project would succeed and did not quite take things seriously during
production.
Of course 40 years after A New Hope was released, the Star Wars continues to expand.

10 AMAZING Movies That Were Almost NOT Made

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