Close Calls That Would’ve Drastically Altered These ‘90s Movies (Or Scrapped Them Completely)
We need all the alternate universes to see all the alternate cuts!
![Close Calls That Would’ve Drastically Altered These ‘90s Movies (Or Scrapped Them Completely)](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/5/0/943650_320x180.jpg)
Now that The Big Lebowski, Dumb and Dumber and Tommy Boy have been etched into our brains, it’s easy to assume that their classic characters and most enduring quotes were in the roadmap all along. But it turns out, a ton of spur-of-the-moment snap decisions added up to the classic cinema moments that we now know and love. Years later — now that we're desperately nostalgic enough to watch the “making of” docs — we find out just how different they could’ve been. Would turning Jar Jar Binks into a boneless Stretch Armstrong have endeared him to audiences more? We’ll never know!
(Probably not. Let’s be real, here.)
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![CRACKED.COM The Big Lebowski Mel Gibson could have played the Dude. The Coens write for actors they've already worked with, like John Goodman or Steve Buscemi. But they also write parts for performers they've never collaborated with, and this was the case with The Dude. Mel Gibson could have played him, but apparently he didn't take the pitch seriously.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/1/5/930115.jpg)
![THE ORIGINAL SCRIPT WAS SO BAD NAME fruit MIX tan h LIVING ROOM EVENTIC & MAN A photograph of ة pretty is band NO CON It happened and happen. The A distracted to # gift WAN sat on a go to embraces. pan was ms D Piece by Bennett Yellin's initial Dumb &Dumber 24 the screenplay was so bad that it became 3 AT infamous among producers. The Farrellys CRACKED.COM the MAL = rewrote it with the placeholder title, A Power Tool is Not a Toy to get anyone to read it again. When they swapped the title back to Dumb &](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/1/4/930114.jpg)
![GARY OLDMAN & NIC CAGE AS HARRY &LLOYD CRACKED.COM Gary Oldman and Nicolas Cage were the Farrellys' first choices for Harry & Lloyd. Steve Martin, Martin Short, Chris Elliott, and Rob Lowe were also approached, and Nick Cage was still in line to play Harry when Jim Carrey signed on, but he was dumped after asking for a $2 million raise.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/1/2/930112.jpg)
![OTHER RICHARDS GRAGKED.COM Even though the movie's inception came from Lorne Michaels watching Chris Farley and David Spade's dynamic at SNL, Christian Slater was also considered for the role of Richard. If it weren't for Billy Madison, Sandler was up for the role as well.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/1/1/930111.jpg)
![ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, TOMMY BOY CRACKED.COM In case Rob Lowe couldn't complete the film, director Peter Segal auditioned replacements while filming was underway. Segal said, Matthew McConaughey was just coming off of Dazed and Confused, and he auditioned in this little shack by the lake with mice turds on the floor, and it was this really bizarre moment.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/0/9/930109.jpg)
![DIRECTOR JOHN AVILDSEN SAID THE ITALIAN STALLION WAS SUPPOSED TO DIE IN ROCKY V FOLLOWING A BRUTAL BEATING BY TOMMY GUNN. THE STUDIO VETOED THE ENDING TWO WEEKS INTO SHOOTING. ROCKY BALBOA 1951-1990 S KILLED BY LEAST INTERESTING CHARACTER IN THE FRANCHISE CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/0/8/930108.jpg)
![WAYNE'S WORLD without the Bohemian Rhapsody scene. WAYNE'S WORLD Director Penelope Spheeris and producer Lorne Michaels wanted to use a Guns N' Roses song for the iconic scene, because the band was more popular at the time. CRACKED.COM Mike Myers stepped in and threatened to quit the movie if Bohemian Rhapsody wasn 't used.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/1/0/930110.jpg)
![The theme song for Beauty and the Beast was originally intended to be a rock song, until Angela Lansbury told the executives how much she disliked it. She ended up singing it in her own style. CRACKED COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/0/7/930107.jpg)
![Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) was rejected by every major studio in Hollywood because they didn't think the franchise could work if it were shot in live-action. TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES The movie's creators stuck to their guns and released the movie at their own expense! CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/0/6/930106.jpg)
![This is the worst screenplay that this film company has ever been handed. This is awful. TriStar executive Mike Medavoy said about Pulp Fiction. PULP FICTION Luckily after some editing Quentin Tarantino managed to get the movie picked up. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/0/4/930104.jpg)
![They originally wanted to call Pretty Woman, uh, 3,000. Yes, just 3,000-it was a reference to how much Julia Roberts' character gets paid by Richard Gere's. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/0/2/930102.jpg)
![Independence Day originally had a totally different name than you know. That original title? It was Doomsday - and it got changed at the insistence of Bill Pullman, even thought the studio really wanted Doomsday. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/1/0/1/930101.jpg)
![Original Directors Tamra Davis' Bad Girls A film about strong women in the wild west substituted character development with action scenes, in the most predictable studio move ever. Truly a shame, because Davis has directed some iconic films, and had she added some explosions instead of, you know, being fired, her Bad Girls could have become a real cult classic for the riot grrrl era. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/9/9/930099.jpg)
![Original Directors James Cameron's Jurassic Park Cameron said his take on Michael Crichton's novel would've been Aliens with dinosaurs. But would that work? Some Jurassic Park sequels have tried it, but then again, they weren't by Cameron. Still, we doubt he would have given his sci-fi action version the history- making sense of wonder Spielberg achieved. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/9/8/930098.jpg)
![Original Directors David Cronenberg's Total Recall You won't hear us diss Verhoeven's classic, but Cronenberg's version that got really close to being made in the '80s would've been fascinating. But he wanted to keep close to Philip K. Dick's story (with some heavy body horror, of course), while the studio wanted, and we quote, Raiders of the Lost Ark go to Mars. Ultimately, we just missed out. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/9/7/930097.jpg)
![Original Directors Kevin Smith's Good Will Hunting Smith did not consider himself talented enough to make Good Will Hunting, but Chasing Amy (which also came out in 1997) hints at the path Smith's career could have taken if he had just cared about growing artistically. It wouldn't have been Gus Van Sant's classic, but perhaps the director of Dogma could have pulled off something interesting anyway. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/9/6/930096.jpg)
![Kevin Smith killed Dante. CLERKS CRACKED.COM As originally filmed, Dante is shot by a burglar and left to die on the floor... because Kevin Smith was out of ideas. Не got around to coming up with a better ending after a test audience made it clear they hated it.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/9/5/930095.jpg)
![CRACKED.COM MIB MEN IN BLACK It wasn't originally set in New York City but director Barry Sonnenfeld changed it. Не decided that aliens would most likely go to New York because nobody would notice their weirdness.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/9/3/930093.jpg)
![CRACKED.COM CLueLess Dave Chappelle was nearly cast as Murray in Clueless. In an odd twist, his delivery of Murray's slang seemed too sincere to the director. When Donald Faison auditioned, he wasn't as convincing, and his bad acting won him the role.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/9/2/930092.jpg)
![Benicio Del Toro's character in The Usual Suspects was originally a bland nobody. Metro Goldege adidas POLICE Mayer TRADE MARK He'd be the first to die, so the writers didn't give him any kind of personality. Since what he said wouldn't matter anyway, Del Toro talked in a near-incomprehensible way just for the hell of it. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/9/0/930090.jpg)
![They made up Benny's death scene in Total Recall on the spot. That part of the script was being rewritten when they were supposed to shoot the scene, but they had props and makeup ready, so Mel Johnson Jr. (Benny) suggested they just wing it. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/8/9/930089.jpg)
![The chestburster in Alien 3 was supposed to be played by a very good boy. They wanted to make the alien take on some of the traits of the host organism, so they dressed up a dog, since the alien burst out of a baby ох. But the dog looked too funny, so they dropped the idea. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/8/8/930088.jpg)
![The hybrid in Alien: Resurrection was originally a sexual horror. It had a combination of male and female genitalia, and they shot the whole movie with that design. But director Jean-Pierre Jeunet said that even for a Frenchman, it's too much, and they edited out the genitalia in post-production. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/8/7/930087.jpg)
![MAUL ORIGINALLY LOOKED LIKE A HORROR MOVIE VILLAIN. The Phantom Menace The script described Darth Maul as a vision from your worst nightmare, and artist lain McCaig drew exactly that for his inital design. However, George Lucas thought it was a bit too nightmarish and told Caig to use his second-worst nightmare. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/8/5/930085.jpg)
![GHOSTFACE ALMOST LOOKED LIKE A CHEAP KNOCKOFF. Scream Wes Craven was originally forced to come up with a new design for the mask because Dimension refused to buy the rights to the iconic Ghostface mask-which was owned by Fun World. After being unsatisfied with the new designs, Dimension finally gave in and bought the rights. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/8/1/930081.jpg)
![They were going to make Jar Jar Binks basically a rubbery, boneless alien. Не was supposed to have elastic bones, so he'd stretch out into a weird blob whenever he went to a place that had heavy gravity or high pressure. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/8/0/930080.jpg)
![Kevin smith не was supposed to play Randal in clerks. Smith wrote the role of Randal for himself. But then he realized, hey, making shows and movies is really hard - so he gave himself an easier part. anners CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/7/7/930077.jpg)
![The chracter of Woody was almost a bitter, cynical jerk... ...because the head of Disney tried to rework the script to have more edge to it. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/7/8/930078.jpg)
![Toy Story was pitched as a 30-minute sequel to Tin Toy... ...but the President of Walt Disney told them to make it a full length movie. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/7/9/930079.jpg)
![The producer didn't want Ray Liotta. GoodFellas Behind the Scenes Scorsese was dead set on Liotta, but producer Irwin Winkler kept pushing him towards hiring someone with more star power. Liotta was able to pitch himself to Winkler during a chance meeting in a restaurant, winning him over. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/7/5/930075.jpg)
![Marlon Brando discouraged Scorsese from filming Goodfellas. Scorsese was hesitant about making another crime film after Mean Streets, and Brando told him that he really shouldn't. GoodF ellas Behind the Scenes Luckily, fellow director Michael Powell encouraged him to make the movie. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/7/6/930076.jpg)
![Al Pacino turned down the movie. Pacino was offered the part of Jimmy Conway, but didn't want to be typecast as a gangster. FINAL For DICK Program to D.A. pap Daily Murder of Fl Mayor Describes New Building House Civic Offices Behind the Scenes And yet, that same year he played a cartoonish gangster in Dick Tracy. You remember Dick Tracy, right? CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/7/4/930074.jpg)
![CRACKED.COM An injury prevented cameron Diaz from being sonya Blade. Diaz started martial arts training for Mortal Kombat as soon as she finished filming The Mask. Alas, testing her might broke her wrist before shooting started. Bridgette Wilson took her place, and we never got to see Princess Fiona kicking Outworld ass.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/7/2/930072.jpg)
![Batman Returns BE CATWOMAN CRACKED.COM Tim Burton originally tapped Annette Bening for the role, but she had to drop the highly physical role when she found out she was pregnant. Michelle Pfeiffer stepped into the iconic role.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/7/3/930073.jpg)
![SANDRA BULLOCK TURNED DOWN THE ROLE OF NEO. CRACKED.COM DE : I RHOM SEV SBY The producers of The Matrix approached a number of actors in their long search to find Neo. One of them was Bullock, and they were willing to change Neo into a woman if she accepted. Bullock wasn't interested, deciding that starring in Forces of Nature, a now-forgotten romcom, was a better career choice.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/7/1/930071.jpg)