Telling the story of Hollywood one movie at a time. Behind-the-scenes stories sourced direct from cast/crew or 3+ verified sources. Podcast + daily posts. 🎬
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In the mid 1970s, David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker (ZAZ) were performing with the Kentucky Fried Theatre comedy group. To get inspiration for their skits they used to leave a VCR running overnight to record the late night TV commercials.
Following on from his huge success with psychological thriller Vertigo in 1958, Alfred Hitchcock said he wanted to do "something fun, light-hearted, and generally free of the symbolism permeating his other movies" for his next project.
In 1964, children’s author published what would be one of his most popular novels. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory is the story of a young boy’s adventures inside a magical chocolate factory with its eccentric owner, Willy Wonka. It was an instant hit.
In 1994, “Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13” published, written by Jeffrey Kluger and astronaut Jim Lovell. It was an account of Lovell’s experiences aboard Apollo 13, a spaceflight that malfunctioned leaving the crew in a fight for survival to get back to Earth.
In the early 1980s, fantasy illustrator Brian Froud and Muppets creator Jim Henson talked about working together. Of the many ideas they had, the one that stuck was an image of “a baby surrounded by goblins" as Froud later put it.
Following The Shining, Stanley Kubrick was interested in making a war film. Looking for source material he read many novels and came across Gustav Hasford’s The Short-Timers. Kubrick called it "a unique, absolutely wonderful book" and decided to adapt it.
Philip K. Dick’s science fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was published in 1968. It attracted immediate interest from filmmakers. Martin Scorsese wanted to adapt it for the big screen but never optioned it.
Development of the film began in the mid-70s when producers David Foster and Lawrence Turman wanted to adapt the novella Who Goes There? Which had been adapted in 1951’s The Thing from Another World. Universal bought the rights for Foster and Turman to produce.
Following the huge success of Superman in 1978, Warner Bros turned to their other huge property. Superman co-writer Tom Mankiewicz was hired to write the origin of Batman. Robin featured and the villains were the Joker and the Penguin.
Who Censored Roger Rabbit? Was published in 1981. A fantasy mystery novel written by Gary K. Wolf, Disney snapped up the rights immediately, thinking it perfect for a film adaptation, and hired Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman to write a script.
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.
Father-and-son producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind had got Superman to the big screen in 1978 and it was a huge hit. They’d been thinking about a sequel before they even had the Superman rights and had director Richard Donner shoot both films simultaneously.
The Blues Brothers started on TV when Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi played them in a 1976 SNL sketch, and formed a real Blues Brothers band. Aykroyd liked the idea of a film and, after some moderate success with the band, approached Universal Pictures about a movie.
Jaws started life as a novel by author Peter Benchley. Published in 1974 it had quickly became a best-seller. Universal bought the rights and gave it to David Brown and Richard D. Zanuck to produce.
In 1983, Universal planned for their next big movie to be an adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Identity. They wanted Burt Reynolds as Bourne and Jack Clayton to direct. Reynolds schedule was so busy that the idea never got off the ground.
Warner Bros had been looking to reboot Batman since the flop of Batman & Robin in 1997. Daren Aronofsky was attached to direct and was interested in casting Clint Eastwood as an older Batman. WB rejected his pitch though.
In summer 1977, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were on holiday together in Hawaii. Spielberg was keen on directing a James Bond movie but Lucas said “I’ve got something better than Bond…” and told him about his idea for a whip-cracking, globe-trotting archaeologist…
In the mid-1980s there was a joke in Hollywood that after beating Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, Rocky Balboa would have to fight an alien next. In response, screenwriters Jim and John Thomas took wrote a screenplay about a killer alien coming to earth. They called it Hunter.
The biggest filmmaker in the world in 1981, Steven Spielberg wanted his next film to be a more personal story. He had an idea for a film – Growing Up. Inspired by his parents divorce, it was about the alienation Spielberg felt as a child.
Jurassic Park is based on a novel written by Michael Crichton. Crichton’s concept was deemed so strong by Hollywood that studios were bidding on the rights to the book before it was even published.
The previous big-screen entry in the series had been Superman Returns in 2006. There were plans for a sequel titled Man Of Steel and director Bryan Singer and star Brandon Routh wanted to return but, disappointed with box-office returns, Warner Bros cancelled plans.
