1. Toy Story

Whoa... what? Toy Story is arguably the greatest Pixar movie of all time and it almost didn’t make it to the big screen. Disney was hesitant on green lighting the movie because test reels had been tedious and disappointing. Woody and Buzz were “overly sarcastic and unpleasant, not the lovable duo we know them as now.” Production was put on halt and a total script re-write was ordered. They had a three-month deadline to write the entire story over or “Toy Story” would be dead. Luckily for all of us, things worked out just fine. This tops my list for great movies that almost didn’t make it.

2. Batman

The 1989 Batman movie almost didn’t make it through the development stage. Tim Burton and writers tried several different scripts and Warner Brothers delayed the production of the movie due to poor press. The casting of comedy actor Michael Keaton in the lead role caused controversy. In the end, however, the film proved to be a massive box office hit. It inspired the many comic book movies that followed it.

3. Back to the Future

The scriptwriters of this film spent four years trying to get a studio to produce the movie. They were turned down by Columbia for not being ‘provocative enough’ and Disney for being ‘too raunchy.’ The scriptwriters, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, fell back on their friend Steven Spielberg for help. They used his connections to get Universal to green light the movie! Can you imagine if it hadn’t worked out?

4. The Princess Bride

A world without “The Princess Bride”? Inconceivable! Rob Reiner, the director of the film, said that the film almost became a member of the ‘greatest scripts never made’ faction. The film was first optioned in 1973 but after the production head was fired, the movie fell to the bottom of the pile. Over the next 15 years, big directors tried to snag the movie! It wasn’t until Reiner met with the book's author that the film finally moved forward from development.

5. Star Wars

Sci-fi wasn’t the most popular genre at the time of production. So, Universal passed on the movie because they thought it’d be too risky with the high budget that it’d require. 20th Century Fox signed on but no one really believed in the movie. At one point, the film fell behind schedule by two weeks. They were given a week deadline after that and thankfully, they made it.

6. Little Miss Sunshine

Focus Features dropped the movie after two years of pre-production. This left the movie in treading water. Thankfully, Marc Turtletaub bought back the rights from Focus for $400,000 and paid the $8 mil budget himself. Wow. I’m glad he did though, because this is one of my favorite movies!

7. A Nightmare on Elm Street

Paramount Pictures showed interest in the movie but later dropped it for being too similar to their current production, “Dreamscape.” Eventually, the New Line Cinema corporation picked it up as their first actual film production. They had some ups and downs with production but powered through. A Nightmare On Elm Street went on to become the second highest grossing horror franchise of all time!

That sums up my list for awesome movies that almost didn’t make it to the big screen. Totally mind blowing. Could you have survived without any of these movies?