Cinema classics we know of today all start from an idea that a writer had — whether it would work or wouldn’t work entirely depends on the confidence they had in the story. Eventually, what was a simple idea turns into a script, a script turns into a pitch, and finally into a movie or TV series.

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It is common knowledge that it's extremely difficult to get anything made by Hollywood studios, especially if the script doesn’t tick all the boxes that dictate the success of a film or series. But in some cases, an executive or the head of a studio will see potential in the story and decides to give it a chance. Some of them even turn out to be unbeatable cinematic classics.

'Pulp Fiction'

Pulp Fiction

Seven years before making the now iconic Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino was a broke 23-year-old who worked in a video rental store and was struggling to make ends meet. While working in the store and without the help of an agent, he would send out scripts to studios but would get rejections because his works were “too vile, too vulgar, too violent.”

The Weinstein brothers (Bob and Harvey Weinstein) saw potential in the story and gave Tarantino and his script a chance. The cult classic wouldn’t have been made otherwise. Roger Avary, a collaborator on the screenplay of Pulp Fiction, mentioned that script reader Mike Medavoy claimed that he “was wrong” about the script (he initially rejected it) after seeing how the film turned out to be. With a budget of $8.5 million, Pulp Fiction managed to earn $214 million worldwide and became the top-grossing independent film at the time.

'Squid Game'

The doll from the first game in Squid Game and staff in pink next to her

Squid Game, undoubtedly the most talked-about show of 2021, was initially rejected by many major studios for nearly ten years as it was deemed “too brutal for television,” and the idea of people competing to death for money seemed highly implausible. It wasn’t until two years ago that “Netflix thought the class struggles outlined in Squid Game spoke to reality.”

According to an article on The Wall Street Journal, while living with his mother and grandmother, writer/creator of Squid Game Hwang Dong-hyuk was forced to sell his laptop for $675 and financially support himself while writing the show. Squid Game seemed to have been produced and released at the right time as recently, films and TV shows have touched upon class disparity and its influence on people’s actions. Thank you, Netflix, for making Squid Game a reality.

'Back to the Future'

Back to the Future

Nearly 40 years later, Back to the Future has remained a science fiction and Hollywood classic to this day. It stayed at number one for 11 weeks and was the highest-grossing film of the year of its release, in 1985. Despite its success, it was initially rejected more than 40 times by major studios such as Disney and Columbia Pictures, and some studios even rejected it more than once.

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On the one hand, one of Disneys executives famously commented that Back to the Future was not family-friendly enough, “You’ve got the kid and the mother in his car! It’s incest — this is Disney. It’s too dirty for us!” While on the other hand, Columbia deemed it a heartwarming script but “not sexual enough.”. Steven Spielberg was the only person who believed in Back to the Future, and luckily enough, Spielberg was setting up his own production company, Amblin Entertainment, at Universal Studios and wanted Back to the Future to be its first project. Amblin Entertainment executives Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall joined Steven Spielberg as the film's executive producers.

'The Usual Suspects'

Kevin Pollak, Stephen Baldwin, Benecio Del Toro, Gabriel Byrne, and Kevin Spacey in a police line-up in the The Usual Suspects
Image via Gramercy Pictures

The neo-noir thriller film, The Usual Suspects, was a massive success upon its release and won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Kevin Spacey also won the award for Best Supporting Actor. The film was ranked as the 35th greatest screenplay of all time by the Writers Guild of America. Despite its success, writer Christopher McQuarrie mentioned, "“Every studio, major and minor, rejected it.”

As if the non-linear format of the script wasn’t baffling the studios enough, the choice of casting Kevin Spacey, who wasn’t a mainstream actor at the time, was another huge risk factor for the studios. A Sony executive watched the film and said, “Remake it with Mel Gibson in there and you’ll have a hit.” The film went on to win 35 awards (and perhaps more from other awards associations).

'Raiders of the Lost Ark'

Indiana Jones about to grab the golden idol in Raiders of the Lost Ark

This 1981 action-adventure film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, won five Academy Awards, seven Saturn Awards, and one BAFTA, among other wins and nominations. It also became the highest-grossing film in 1981, earning nearly $400 million worldwide. George Lucas and Philip Kaufman, who developed the story and concept of Indiana Jones, offered the project to several Hollywood studios, but this idea was rejected due to the proposed $20 million budget.

Not only that, but Lucas also wanted to have complete creative freedom over the film and retain the licensing rights to the film and its possible sequels. He also refused to do the film without Steven Spielberg, who, unfortunately, at the time, was seen as a risky director due to his recent film 1941’s surpassed the studio’s budget and was a box office failure. Paramount Pictures president Michael Eisner eventually compromised with Lucas — the studio would accept the deal if they got exclusive rights to any sequels, and Lucasfilm would get penalties if they exceeded the schedule and budget.

'Stranger Things'

Stranger-Things-1

The creators (and brothers) of Stranger Things, Ross and Matt Duffer, have had a trajectory in their careers since the release and the success that followed Stranger Things. The script, however, was initially pitched to and rejected over 15 times by cable networks. Many studios felt that a story focused on children as the leading characters would not gain an audience or be a commercial success. Some even suggested not having any children actors and instead focusing the plot on Hopper’s paranormal investigations.

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In 2015, 21 Laps Entertainment’s Vice President Dan Cohen brought the script to his colleague, Shawn Levy. Impressed by the script, they invited the Duffer brothers to their office and purchased the rights for the series, and Levy later helped bring Stranger Things to Netflix’s table. Shawn Levy said, “Literally Netflix was the first buyer we pitched to. By next morning they bought the season.”

'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'

ET

The development of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was going to be a complicated one. After the success that followed Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Columbia Pictures wanted a sequel to the film. Spielberg, however, didn’t want to make a sequel and instead became inspired to write another alien-plotted story, Night Skies. Though Night Skies was the original concept for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the only thing the film share is its inclusion of aliens. The aliens in Night Skies were invasive to humans rather than friendly.

While filming Raiders of the Lost Ark, Spielberg was inspired to change the concept of Night Skies to something more heartwarming. Columbia Pictures, however, was unhappy with the changes Spielberg had made to the script. Eventually, Spielberg retooled his film and had a theatrical re-release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Special Edition instead of the once intended sequel. Now that Columbia Pictures was happy, he made E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. After three drafts, Columbia Pictures still did not see value in the story and didn’t believe it would be a commercial success, and thus handed the script over to Universal Studios, with the exception that Columbia would still get a 5% of net profits from the film. One Columbia executive claimed that the small 5% stake ended up making more than any other films released in that year.

'Star Wars'

Star Wars

Even if you haven’t seen Star Wars, you will know the franchise. The most successful science fiction “space opera” franchise was once considered an indie film that no studio wanted to finance. Major Hollywood studios such as United Artists, Universal Studios, and even Disney turned George Lucas down. They saw no potential in then relatively newcomer Lucas, and his story, which involved funny words such as Jedi and Starkiller (Luke Skywalker’s original name) and a talking dog in space.

20th Century Fox decided to agree to make the film, but only because they wanted to maintain a relationship with Lucas and were highly impressed with his last film, American Graffiti. It wasn’t because they truly believed that Star Wars would be successful. Lucas recalled a head of 20th Century Fox telling him, “I don’t understand this, but I loved American Graffiti, and whatever you do is okay with me.”

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