28 Pop Culture Masterpieces That Almost Didn’t Happen

A ton of iconic works came thisclose to the ‘Toy Story’ incinerator
28 Pop Culture Masterpieces That Almost Didn’t Happen

We’re surrounded by pop-culture franchises that everyone takes for granted. What you might not realize is that a lot of those zeitgeist staples almost didn’t happen. Tons and tons of iconic books, movies, shows, songs and even entire franchises almost landed on the scrap heap — or did land on the scrap heap, and somehow got resurrected. Iconic books, movies, shows, songs and franchises like…

It was a miracle that Cleopatra (1963) ever came out. Initial filming was riddled with So many problems that the first director resigned in frustratio
This is the worst screenplay that this. film company has ever been handed. This is awful. Tristar executive Mike Medavoy said about Pulp Fiction. PU

The Exorcist

CRACKEDG COM Nobody wanted to film The Exorcist because the novel it is based on was a commerical flop. Author William Peter Blatty was turned down by
Keith Richards composed the guitar riff from (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction while half-asleep. He didn't like the song, and as he said if I'd had my
Lord of the Rings almost didn't make it to the big screen all major studios turned Jackson down. Luckily, New Line came through, on the same day Jacks
The CRACKED COM Godfather Finding someone to direct this epic story was not simple. The movie was offered to and rejected by 11 directors before being

Game of Thrones

HBO hated Game of Thrones' pilot, SO they almost nixed the show. GAME OF HRONES They only said yes when nearly the whole pilot was reshot.
CRACKED.COM Halo's legendary multiplayer was almost cut from the game. For Halo: Combat Evolved Bungie just didn't have the resources to focus on mult
Wilson Rawls burned his first manuscript of the book that would become Where the Red Fern Grows because his poor grammar made his writing unpublishabl
CRACKEDOON Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Waik Co Freedom almost got lost in prison... Nelson Nelson Mandela and Mac Maharaj painstakingly wrote
After being dropped twice by other labels, the Sex Pistols later signed with Virgin Records in 1977 where they released Never Mind The Bollocks. NEVER

Back to the Future

BACY CRACKEDCO COM TO FUTURE THE The movie was not haPpening. The script was rejected 40 times for various reasons like: Columbia Pictures: Not being

Carrie

Stephen King felt finishing Carrie wasn't worth the effort, and threw away the three pages he wrote. His wife found them in the trash, liked the story
GRAYITY almost ALLS ended after one season. Showrunner Alex Hirsch was committed to not doing the second season because of burnout, until Jon Stewart

Dune

Dune was turned down by over 20 publishers, who believed SF readers only like short stories. But Chilton, a small publisher of trade and hobby magazin
28 Pop Culture Masterpieces That Almost Didn’t Happen

Alice in Wonderland

Walt Disney originally shelved Alice in Wonderland in 1933 because Paramount released their own Alice adaption first. e Dtf ALICE Work on the movie fi
CRACKEDCO Due to a young and inexperienced staff We almost never got the iconic GTA series. After the TRAID development teams argued for weeks THEFT t

The Marx Bros.

CRACKEDC CON THE COCOANUTS The Marx Brothers disliked their first film SO much, they tried to prevent its release. Luckily, they failed. The film went
Rockstar saved CRACKEDCO the Red Dead franchise from Capcom's trash heap. XBOX360 xeox XECS LIE REDDEAD TIETOLVE IXBOXONE TAR GAMES DEAD HOR PRESENES

Toto

CRACKEDOON The world almost never got to hearAfrica. AFKIC ToTo Toto didn't want to include the song on their album because they thought it was terr
Some bad luck with computers almost led to Pokemon Red and Green never being finished. ASITR GAME BOY. -AFKY 19997 SQUIRTLE :L5 NP: TTET CHARMANDER :L
The Little Mermaid almost never happened. Disney thought it had too many similarities to a Splash! sequel that was already in the works. CRACKEDO

Friends

CRACKED The FR.I.EN.P E gang was almost not there for you if test audiences got their way. NBC Research did a pilot run of the show and found that aud

Weeds

We have Breaking Bad because Vince Gilligan hadn't heard of Weeds when he pitched it. Br eaking Balc weensk If he had, his idea would have felt too mu

Blade Runner

Filmways, the company initially bankrolling Blade Runner, backpedaled at the last minute, leaving producer Michael Deeley with two weeks to come by $2
When Paul Verhoeven read the Robocop script, he called it a piece of S s*k*t and threw it away. His wife read it and said he could make the movie ha
A Nightmare on EIm Street was rejected by every major movie studio until New Line Cinema stepped in. Then nearly all of the investors jumped ship righ
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