The Secret Origins Of 2014's Biggest Summer Blockbusters

Most people understand how big films come to fruition. Usually they are based on previously-existing material, given to a handful of screenwriters, finessed by producers and directors, then matched to a star or an ensemble cast, usually in preparation for a potential series of films. Seems pretty basic, really.

But sometimes those movies are brand properties unto themselves. And properties evolve and change, due to the massive amounts of money and the various creative people involved. So, development is not that cut and dried: what you are seeing this summer is the end result of a few periods of wild creativity and adventurous risk-taking that could have changed our moviegoing summers. Today, we're going to look at five summer properties that had fairly unusual development periods, and could have arrived in theaters in dramatically different forms.

Edge Of Tomorrow

What Is It: Tom Cruise plays a PR military rep who ends up sent to the front lines of a future war. But when he uncovers a secret time loop that allows him to travel back in time, it gives him the key to becoming a better soldier and ending the conflict.

Based On: All You Need Is Kill, a novel written by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.

What It Could Have Been: All You Need Is Kill was in development in Hollywood for years, though a team of screenwriters couldn't quite crack the story. A large part of the studio's reluctance revolved around the fact that the (Japanese) story deals with Keiji Kiriya, a new recruit to combat who must learn the ropes as a rookie.

Translating that proved difficult, though for a very long time the studios eyed Zac Efron to step inside the metal exo-suit to play the hero. For a while, we almost had a big summer blockbuster where Efron must learn the time loop and survive the oncoming alien apocalypse to save humanity. Efron starred in this summer's Neighbors, which grossed close to $150 million domestic, while Cruise's re-envisioned Edge Of Tomorrow (lousy title!) has still only earned $90 million in America. Perhaps, Efron was the way to go here.

Godzilla

What Is It: A monster from our nuclear past is threatening to re-awaken, and humanity is helpless underneath his fearsome claws.

Based On: Japan's famous daikaiju starred in 28 films produced by Toho Studios, before coming to America with 1998's Godzilla and 2014's unrelated Godzilla.

What It Could Have Been: The 1954 Godzilla introduced a new cinematic legend, one who would eventually go on to earn an MTV Lifetime Achievement Award among other preposterous honors. But if Shinichi Sekizawa had his way, the character would have led an entirely different life. Back in 1966, Toho was still crowing over the success from King Kong vs. Godzilla and wanted to capitalize on the heat with another sequel that pitted Godzilla against a pop culture titan. Naturally, the job fell to Batman.

Sekizawa's pitch, which occurred around the time of the 1960s Batman television series starring Adam West, would have found the Dynamic Duo dealing with the creature's rampage on Gotham City. While the concept never got beyond the note-taking stage, ideas that featured in the small treatment for this film involved mentions of Commissioner Gordon and Batgirl, the use of Batman's many vehicles, and a weather-control machine that later found its way into Son Of Godzilla.

After that, an American Godzilla was a high priority, but no one could figure out how to do it in a way that distinguished itself from the Toho hits. Fred Dekker (Monster Squad) penned a screenplay in the early 1980s for director Steve Miner (Friday The 13^th Part III) with the expectation that it would be in 3D. But budgetary problems not only shut that down, but a later ‘90s incarnation to be directed by Jan de Bont (Speed) where Godzilla was to be a creation of the Atlanteans.

X-Men: Days Of Future Past

What is It? Mutants of the future are being hunted down by human-serving robots, forcing a Hail Mary time-travel plot to the moment when humanity turned against the X-Men for good.

Based On: The comic series created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, but specifically the storyline presided over by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Terry Austin.

What it Could Have Been: Marvel thought they had made a killing in the 1970s and 1980s when they sold the movie rights to their comic book properties. But many of those studios who purchased the rights were low budget flophouses that churned out bargain-basement cheapies like 1978's TV-movie Dr. Strange and 1990's Captain America. Carolco was one of the stronger studios to consider a superhero film, however, and they were able to interest James Cameron thanks to a pitch from Chris Claremont.

Their chit-chat revolved around casting suggestions like Bob Hoskins for Wolverine and Angela Bassett as Storm, with Cameron's then-wife Kathryn Bigelow in the director's chair. But Cameron's attentions soon shifted to Spider-Man, and the X-Men migrated to Fox. Scads of scripts followed, none that suited the budgetary or creative desires of the studio (mostly the former than the latter). None, it's worth saying, would have been as interesting as a Bigelow-Cameron team-up, which surely would have changed the face of comic book films.

[related article: The X-Men Movies You Never Saw]

In the wake of The Usual Suspects, Bryan Singer was brought on to develop the film. But Fox didn't know what kind of movie they really wanted to make, and script work was being done by Oscar winner Christopher McQuarrie, Avengers director Joss Whedon, and Gladiator scribe John Logan, among others, with casting suggestions ranging from Mel Gibson to Russell Crowe for Magneto and Terrence Stamp as Magneto. Eventually, David Hayter's script (or Hayter's combination of all the pre-existing scripts) became the completed movie, leaving behind a host of other concepts and ideas.

The X-Men series has carried on over seven films thus far, though there are several avenues that were never taken. One was Bryan Singer's third film, which would have featured Sigourney Weaver as the White Queen and found a resurrected Phoenix being controlled by the Hellfire Club. Another was a script written by Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air) focusing on the back story of Magneto, which was eventually folded into X-Men: First Class. And we're willing to bet these movies would have come out far more differently if Fox was able to get their first choice for Wolverine, Dougray Scott.

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes

What is It? Stricken by the simian flu, humanity attempts to rebuild itself, though they face swift opposition from the quickly-evolving ape population.

Based On: This is a sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which was a prequel to the 1968 classic Planet of the Apes and its four sequels. The original '68 film was based on the novel by Pierre Boulle.

What it Could Have Been: Planet of the Apes has always been a prized property for Fox, and after 1973's Battle for the Planet of the Apes, they waited in order to build up demand for a newer series. That approach yielded the screenplay for Return to the Planet of the Apes, a screenplay from writer-director Adam Rifkin that provided a direct sequel to the very first film. A descendant of Charlton Heston's Taylor would take center stage, leading a coup against the ape overlords in what was described as a “sword and sandals spectacular”. But Fox eventually got cold feet in regards to Rifkin's inexperience with big budget filmmaking. The studio listened to a similar pitch from Peter Jackson and writing partner Fran Walsh, but this was long before Lord of the Rings, so he was even less proven than Rifkin. A Peter Jackson Planet of the Apes film would have been incredible, however.

[related article: Continuity of the Planet of the Apes: An Apes Timeline]

In the 1990s, the idea took flight once again as a remake of the first film. But the studio and a host of directors warred over how much would change, particularly with headstrong producers involved like Oliver Stone. Philip Noyce (Salt) was briefly attached to a version with Arnold Schwarzenegger starring, based on Stone's ideas about an Ape Illuminati stretching back to the Biblical era. Return of the Apes, as it was called, soon morphed into The Visitor, sort of a stealth secret title for the remake. When they couldn't get a script going, Fox, desperate to keep Schwarzenegger, appealed to several new directors. Michael Bay, Roland Emmerich, and James Cameron; all rejected it, as did, surprisingly, a still pre-Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson.

Eventually, Tim Burton took the helm, and he toted an ambitious script from William Broyles Jr. (Cast Away). Given a fair amount of creative control, Broyles penned a costly script that was centered on the planet of Aschlar, meant to be its own mythology separate from the other films. But this angle was later condensed into a surprise ending, as Fox, in this order, selected an oncoming release date before whittling down the script's ambitions. The result was 2001's Planet of the Apes, which ultimately necessitated Rise of the Planet of the Apes 10 years later to wipe the slate clean.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

What Is It: In his fifth big screen adventure, the wallcrawler has to battle the deadly Electro while also neutralizing the threat of his old friend, who is slowly mutating into the Green Goblin.

Based On: The sequel to 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man, it's also the second in a franchise offshoot from the earlier Spider-Man trilogy, itself derived from the Marvel comics series' created by Stan Lee and Steve Dikto.

What It Could Have Been: Spider-Man has had a VERY long history with movies even before he first hit the screen for Sony in 2002's Spider-Man. Various producers took a stab at adapting Marvel's flagship superhero. The earliest serious attempt came from a script by Stan Lee himself, which ended up in the hands of shlock maestro Roger Corman. However, Lee's script found the hero engaging in high-flying battles with Doctor Octopus along the city skyline, which placed the film far out of Corman's budgetary desires. Later, Corman would use up his option on a literally-unreleasable Fantastic Fourmovie.

Soon, the rights shifted to Cannon, who were planning their own big budget launch of the character. Boasting a trailer and a massive ad in trade magazines, Spider-Man was to be directed by Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre). Wait, no, it was going to be directed by Joseph Zito (Missing In Action). No wait, it was going to be helmed by Albert Pyun (Cyborg)! Yep, that's the ticket.

Unfortunately, Cannon producer Menahem Golan had no idea what the character really was, assuming it was a man who morphed into an actual spider. This confusion carried onto several drafts of the film that approached hard science fiction in its depiction of the hero and his villains. Eventually, the gamble rested on one final idea: He-Man.

Gary Goddard was directing Masters Of The Universe, which Cannon anticipated would be a huge hit. As a result, they started building sets that would be used for both Spider-Man and Masters Of The Universe 2, both to be directed by Pyun. But Masters Of The Universe was a flop, and plans for Spider-Man were quickly canceled. Seeking to make lemonade, Pyun repurposed the sets for Jean-Claude Van Damme's Cyborg.

[related article: Spider-Man: Is Hollywood Missing The Point?]

Later, the remnants of Cannon survived in Carolco, and the studio got James Cameron involved. He penned a treatment that created a darker, less commercial vision of the character. Though his idea for organic web-shooters showed up in 2002's Spider-Man, his other concepts, involving a snobby hero treating love interest Mary Jane poorly, failed to gain traction.

And then, the lawsuits – Cameron wouldn't allow Golan's name to appear as a producer on the film. And before they could sort that out, Marvel realized they sold the Spider-Man rights to three separate studios. While they attempted to sort this out, Michael Jackson reportedly attempted to purchase Marvel in order to play Spider-Man himself in a movie. Obviously, none of that scuttlebutt went anywhere, and Spidey landed at Sony.

Sony entertained many concepts for a Spider-Man adventure, including one pitch by David Fincher where the origin story was to occupy only the first five minutes of the movie, and the Death of Gwen Stacy would feature prominently. But ultimately the studio went with Sam Raimi's pitch, though they would feud with him on later films. Raimi pitched an outline for Spider-Man 3 that would shoot back-to-back with Spider-Man 4, featuring the hero battling Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) and the Vulture (Ben Kingsley). The studio balked at including the latter villain, and producer Avi Arad pushed hard for Venom instead.

Raimi wasn't taking no for an answer regarding Spider-Man 4, however, and held steadfast on including Vulture (John Malkovich). He also had Anne Hathaway attached to play the Black Cat—and then “Vultress” at studio insistence—when Sony announced their refusal to move forward on the script, instead opting to part ways with the filmmaker. Considering the last two web-head adventures were the lowest grossing in the series, maybe Spider-Man 4 wasn't such a bad idea after all.

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