The account on classic and hit films. Details provided in our making of stories is direct from cast/crew or 3+ sources. Check out our podcast @ATRMPodcast 😁
66 subscribers
The whole trilogy was filmed across an epic 15-month shoot in New Zealand where all films were shot back to back. As such, most of the cast returned from the first film. As did most of the massive 3000-strong production crew.
In 1937, J.R.R. Tolkien’s first Middle-earth set fantasy novel The Hobbit was published. It quickly became a classic and Tolkin followed it up in 1954/55 with The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Long before Peter Jackson, Hollywood had been looking to adapt them. 
In 1941, American novelist Philip van Doren Stern finished his latest book, a Christmas-set story called The Greatest Gift. After two years of being rejected by publishers, the writer had it published as 24-page booklet and sent it to friends and family.
In the early 1980s, filmmaker Michael Mann was shopping around a script he’d written for a Los Angeles-set crime thriller. He wanted Walter Hill to direct it and, when Hill said no, Mann adapted it into a TV movie called L.A. Takedown that aired in 1989.
Alexander and Ilya Salkind were a French-Mexican father-and-son movie producing duo, who wanted to make a big-screen adaptation of Superman. After pitching the idea round Hollywood since 1973, the release of Star Wars in 1977 made studios more receptive to the idea.
In 1975, Sylvester Stallone was an aspiring actor. Struggling to find roles beyond extras and small-time parts, Stallone was worrying how to make ends meet and sold his beloved dog. He came up with an idea – write a screenplay perfect for his acting talents.
Gremlins was conceived by Chris Columbus when he was an NYU student as a script to show potential employers. He never thought it would be a film but it got into the hands of Steven Spielberg who said “it’s one of the most original things I’ve come across” and bought it.
After Batman was a huge hit in 1989, Warner Bros wanted a sequel. Neither Tim Burton or Michael Keaton had been signed up for one. Burton agreed to return if he had final sign off on the script, and Keaton only for a hike in salary from a reported $6m to $11m.
In 1986, having created the first CGI movie character in Young Sherlock Holmes, The Graphics Group division of Lucasfilm was bought by technology innovator Steve Jobs. The company was quickly rebranded as Pixar Animation Studios.
As a young boy, Steven Spielberg was awoken in the middle of one night by his excited father and taken to watch the Leonid meteor shower. The experience gave Spielberg a fascination with outer space, and left a lasting impression on the aspiring filmmaker.
Toy Story had released in 1995 as a smash hit, groundbreaking animation and cultural phenomenon. Production company Pixar Animation Studios had plans for a sequel a month before the release but, like most animated sequels, it was expected to be a straight-to-video film.
Following successfully working together on Goodfellas - an adaptation of his crime book Wiseguys – author Nicholas Pileggi approached director Martin Scorsese with a new idea; a film based on the true story of the mob-based rule over Las Vegas casinos in the 1970s.
In the 1970s, American author Edwin Torres published crime novels Carlito’s Way and After Hours, the story of an ex-con who finds himself pulled back into the New York underworld. Torres sold the rights to the books 10 times in the following years.
In the 1950s, aspiring writer Ken Kesey was an orderly in a psychiatric hospital. Seeing potential in his experiences for a story about mental illness and its societal causes, he wrote a book, and called it One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. It published in 1962.
In 2005, American author Cormac McCarthy’s 9th novel – No Country For Old Men - published. The 1980-set story of a drug deal on the Mexico-US border that goes wrong, McCarthy had originally written the tale as a screenplay and, before long, Hollywood was interested.
In 1998, Ted Chiang’s novella Story Of Your Life published in science fiction series Starlight 2. Telling the tale of a linguist making first contact with an alien species and discovering she can see the future, the story soon attracted Hollywood attention.
In the mid-1990s, RoboCop co-writer Ed Neumeier came up with an idea for his next screenplay. A future-set science fiction action film, it pitched humans against an alien species from the other side of the galaxy and was called Bug Hunt At Outpost 9.
Having worked together in 1997 on science fiction drama Contact, producer Lynda Obst and theoretical physicist Kip Thorne came up with an idea for a movie about “the most exotic events in the universe” and wrote a treatment for a story called Interstellar.
In 1996, Chuck Palahniuk’s debut novel was published. The story of an unnamed protagonist who suffers severe insomnia, befriends the mysterious Tyler Duerden, and sets up an underground cult, the book was called Fight Club, and it was an instant hit.
In 1981, James Cameron was a former special effects artist who had been promoted to direct his first feature film – Piranha II: The Spawning. The young filmmaker didn’t last long, reportedly getting fired after just 2 weeks. It wasn’t a waste of time, though…
In 1965, Frank Herbert’ science fiction novel Dune was published. A future-set epic of interstellar travel and warfare, it became an instant, award-winning classic. Herbert considered his book unfilmable, but that didn’t stop film studios taking an interest.
