The Movies That Almost Were

In the movie industry (an industry that steadfastly refuses to speak to me directly),  most movies go through a series of changes from page to screen. Today, at ALOOFUS, we are going to look at the origins of famous films and what could have been.

AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON
At its genesis, this film was almost completely different. For starters, it was called 'A ENGLISH WEREWOLF IN NEW YORK' and was more of a comedy, centring around a wolf man trying to live in modern day Manhattan. The original script featured almost no action and was dialogue-driven to the point of being incredibly mundane. For example, there is a eight minute conversation about visa forms. This was, of course, replaced by the iconic transformation scene.
Thankfully, less-hairer heads prevailed and the film we now know and love is the one that was made.

ALIEN
Alien is a classic, for that there is no doubt. Its a dark, menacing sci-fi nightmare that ruined social dinner for a lot of people whilst attaching a rocket pack fuelled of success to its breakout star, Sigourney Weaver. (Who is even taller in real life, standing at almost 11ft). With Ridley Scott at the helm and Dan O'Bannon at the pen, the world was truly given a horrific gift in 1979 (the second event was my birth which, as my Mother explains it, wasn't unsimilar to the iconic moment with John Hurt)
However, what many people don't know is that when Mr O'Bannon put quill to paper to write 'Alien', he had a different idea in his mind.
The film was set in space and featured some of the general themes. However, there was no alien to speak of. It was about a group of people who are bothered by a hitch-hiker called 'Alan', who makes a nuisance of himself by winding people at dinner and covering crew members faces with his hand (which became the facehugger). The film ends with the crew and its cat, Dennis, pushing Alan out of the spaceship and vowing never to pick up strangers again.
With no xenomorph, horror or any real peril, the film would not have made a dent in pop culture but did inspire the film 'Moon' which features a man walking around a spaceship, annoying himself.

QUICK HITS
Here are some other films and what could have been, in bite-sized form.

THE TERMINATOR - was supposed to be about a depressed music teacher who is forced to live in a skip.
JAWS - Didn't feature a shark, it was a big mouth swallowing people in Skegness.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY - Basically, three office workers keeping an eye on an unclaimed chocolate bar.