So I was watching "Speed" again last night. Listening to the commentary with Graham Yost (credited screenwriter). He's a lot of fun. Self-effacing humor. Lots to say about the politics behind the making of this movie. Mostly talking about how REALLY bad "Speed" could've been. Then I discovered that Joss Whedon had done maybe 80% of uncredited work on it.
Now, amongst the ideas they had pitched
1) Sandy Bullock's character would be a stand-up comedian and would crack wise during the entire movie (Whedon ditched that idea, since who jokes around like that when they're in peril?) In "Die Hard" John McLane does wise acre a lot. But that's in his character to beat away those fear thoughts with humor. Also, Bullock was suppose to be Ellen Degeneres.
2) Alan Ruck's character was a dirtbag lawyer who would spend the ride bitching whining and complaining. You'd want this dude blown up. They changed him into a tourist.
3) Harry (played by Jeff Daniels) was suppose to be partnered with the mad bomber. At the end, the reveal is that they are incahoots for money. This changed to just Harry being the brains of a two man bomb disposal guy.
Now...these are just a few examples of how, when we look back of decisions we could've made, that's how fragile stories are. In light of my own projects, yeah, it's really hard sometimes to see where things could go off the rails and what's worth keeping. Quite honestly, if you were to pitch this movie today (and not knowing the success it was) I guarantee studios would turn it down again. Wouldn't you?
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