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In 1983, aspiring American screenwriter Randall Wallace visited Edinburgh to learn about his own Scottish ancestry. Seeing a statue of William Wallace at Edinburgh Castle, he asked a tour guide who he was. The story he heard gave him an idea for a movie.
Even before the original trilogy became a huge success, George Lucas had always planned for the Star Wars saga to be told across multiple movies. Having negotiated a studio deal allowing him to retain sequel rights when making the first film, he planned for a total of nine.
In 1983, California Magazine published an article detailing the life of U.S. Airforce pilots at the Miramar base. Hollywood producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson thought it had the basis for a great movie, and Paramount Pictures agreed to fund the film.
Two years after the release of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in 1985, writer-director George Miller had plans for a fourth film in the series. His idea was for “almost a continuous chase” – a story where Max is pursued after possibly stealing oil.
In 1953, author Ian Fleming published a book based on his experiences in British naval intelligence during WWII. The novel was called Casino Royale and the main character was secret agent James Bond, codenamed 007. It was a hit, and studios were interested immediately.
The first serious talk of an Avengers movie preceded the MCU. In 2005, Marvel Studios and Paramount struck a deal to make a series of Marvel Comics-based movies, one of which was The Avengers. Zak Penn (co-screenwriter of two X-men films) was hired to write the script.
In the 1970s, aspiring screenwriter David Franzoni travelled across Europe and the Middle East. Coming across many ancient arenas, he read Daniel P. Mannix’s 1958 book Those About to Die. It was about Roman Gladiators, and Franzoni thought it would make a great movie.
With Spider-Man having been created by Marvel Comics in 1962, the first adaptation came in 1977, when CBS produced a made-for-TV movie. A theatrical production was on the cards a few years later when cult studio Cannon Films bought the rights from Marvel for $250k.
Following Avengers: Age of Ultron, the MCU was moving into Phase 3 of its overarching story and two Avengers movies were planned. Joss Whedon had written-directed both Avengers films to that point but, citing exhaustion (and with rumours of on-set unrest), he stepped aside.
The story of Thanos collecting the Infinity Stones to wipe out half the universe was so epic, Marvel Studios knew they needed two films to do it. Infinity War and Endgame were filmed in one 200-day production. With Infinity War making $2bn, the pressure was on for Endgame.
In the early 1950s, TV writer Reginald Rose served as a jury member on a manslaughter case. Inspired by his experience, he wrote a teleplay called 12 Angry Men as a one-hour drama. It aired on CBS in September 1954, directed by Franklin J. Schaffner.
Having had the idea of a vengeful character called The Bride with Uma Thurman on the set of Pulp Fiction, Tarantino’s epic Kill Bill wrapped production in 2003. With the first cut coming in at 4 hours, distributors Miramax convinced QT to release it as two volumes.
In 1991, Brett Easton Ellis’ American Psycho was published. An 80s-set satire about a serial killer, film studios were interested almost immediately. Within on year, producer Edward Pressman had bought the rights.
In the late 1970s, amateur filmmakers George Miller and Byron Kennedy we’re looking to break into the professional industry. Working as a Doctor in a Sydney hospital at the time, Miller fleshed out an idea with Kenndy for a film set in a post-apocalyptic future.
The idea of a Star Trek prequel had been conceived by series creator Gene Roddenberry as far back as 1968. Nothing happened until the ‘80s when Star Trek writers Ralph Winter and Harve Bennett proposed an idea called Star Trek: The Academy Years. Roddenberry vetoed the idea.
On the back of huge success with their hit sitcom Spaced, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg were looking to break into movies. After filming a Spaced episode called Art, where main character Tim imagines he’s in zombie video game Resident Evil 2, Wright had an idea for a feature…
In the early 1960s, successful French author Pierre Boulle was working on his latest novel. A science fiction story set in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic future, it was called La Planète des singes, translated as Planet of the Apes.
Following the success of supernatural movies like Poltergeist and Ghostbusters, screenwriter Michael McDowell came up with a new idea: ‘what if we took the movie cliché of good people being haunted by bad ghosts, and flipped it?’ and developed it into a script, calling it Beetlejuice.
In 1995, Nick Hornby finished his third book and first novel. Called High Fidelity, it was a reflection on life and romance through the eyes of London record store owner, Rob Fleming. Studios were interested immediately, and Touchstone Pictures optioned it for $500,000.
After releasing his classic satire Dr Strangelove in 1964, Kubrick knew he wanted his next project to be a groundbreaking science fiction film. He got in touch with acclaimed sci fi author and futurist Arthur C. Clarke by letter, asking if he wanted to collaborate on a script.
In 1995, Lana and Lily Wachowski had written Assassins. The producer of that film was Joel Silver, and the Wachowskis showed him their new screenplay called The Matrix. Silver loved the script, but not the Wachowskis’ insistence that they direct it themselves.
