18 Movies With Eyebrow-Arching Origin Stories

Leave it to Hollywood to have weirdness in literally every phase of production.
18 Movies With Eyebrow-Arching Origin Stories

Cracked pays people to make smart memes. Visit the Photoplasty and Pictofacts Workshop to get in on it.

The creative process is mysterious and amazing, and that goes double for the creative nut-jobs in Hollywood. Brace yourself for some amazing facts about the source material behind well-known movies. It's not just the goings-on behind-the-scenes that are bonkers. The cavalcade of crazy starts much, much earlier, with the books, shows, stories, and myths that the scripts are based on.

For example ...

OIUNU SYHO The movie Psycho is based on a book of the same name, written by Robert Bloch. Alfred Hitchcock not only acquired the film rights to the no
In the novel Call Me by Your Name, Oliver watches Elio poop. The movie adaptation scrapped a key moment in which the two lovers bond over each other's
CRACKEDCON Saw II from was adapted a completely different movie's screenplay that had been widely rejected. SAL With no time to write a screenplay, th
COYOTE UGLY $5 10 MATA 1306 ENALT CO BOUTS BOOZL Coyote Ugly was based on a 1997 GQ article titled ELIZABETH GILBERT The Muse of the Coyote OVER 10 M
George Miller took inspiration for MAD MAX from his time working as a resident in an Australian ER. He described the road accident victims as 'the raw

Dumbo

Dumbo was based on a story in a Roll-A-Book, a short-lived novelty. This was a box with images you could scroll through. Disney stumbled on one of the
The Harry Potter world has wizards who are against wearing pants. They're called Fresh Air Refreshes Totally CFA.R.T.) and, to them, pants blOCK mag
Pitch Perfect (2012) is actually an adaptation of a non-fiction book which discusses a cappella subculture in colleges. 'Pitch Perfect The Quest for C
NIGHTMARE a on ELM STREET WAS INSPIRED BY AN ARTICLE ABOUT A CAMBODIAN BOY WHO WOULD STAY AWAKE FOR DAYS AT A TIME, BECAUSE HIS TERRIFYING NIGHTMARES
GRAc The Fast and the Furious was based off of a magazine article. In 1998, VIBE published an article called Racer X, which profiled Rafael Estevez,

American Beauty

The screenplay for American Beauty is loosely based on the Amy Fisherl Joey Buttafuoco story. Alan Ball got the idea for the movie after he saw a comi
The Jeff Goldblum movie Earth Girls Are Easy was based on a novelty song. GIRLS ARTH EASY ARE An'out-of-this-world, down-to-earth romantic comedy.. It

Mean Girls

Mean Girls was based on a teen self-help book. GRAU LINDSAYLOHAN INEY IAN ONNOHOS ANA EVSAD AVIPHIR AATE HONCKOL INIAROS HE Tiny Fey based ANGIRIS the
CRACKED.OOIN Several exchanges in the novel THE ROAD are taken directly from conversations Cormac McCarthy had with his son.
COOL HAND LUKE was partially based on legends of a real prisoner on a Florida chain gang. While author Donn Pearce never met him, the real Luke was so
Mars Attacks! was based on a trading card series. 19 BURNING FLEST Mars Attacks trading cards came out all the way back in 1962; however they didn't l

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds is based on a short story originally published in a women's interest magazine. GOOD Daphne HOUSTKFEPING du Maurier's Best
Ransom Riggs was going to use his collection of creepy old photos to make a picture book. His publisher said he'd be better off using it as the basis
Scroll down for the next article

Must Read

VIRAL ON CRACKED

A WEEKLY
NEWSLETTER OF
JOKES + TRIVIA

Forgot Password?