15 Movies & Shows That Started Out In Completely Different Franchises
Movies can mutate into completely diferent beasts during development.
![15 Movies & Shows That Started Out In Completely Different Franchises](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/1/0/0/745100_320x180.jpg?v=2)
People have an oversimplified idea of how movies are made: A script is written, performers are cast, the movie is shot, and then everyone sits around doing tons of drugs while waiting for awards season.
The reality of show business is much more complicated. A project can come and go for years before anyone ever says, "yes, we're making this thing happen" -- and by then it might have mutated into a completely different beast. What began life as a prequel to Pangolin Man may become the seventh entry in the Armadillo Warriors series. In fact, a movie or show can win, lose, or change its franchise several times along the way. For example:
![Ghosts of Mars almost had Snake Plissken. The studio lost interest in the Escape franchise after Escape from L.A. bombed. So John Carpenter changed Ku](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/9/3/1/744931.jpg?v=2)
![Evan wasn't supposed to be Almighty. The original script was titled The Passion of the Ark, and it was unrelated to Bruce Almighty. It was turned into](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/9/3/5/744935.jpg?v=2)
![The writer of Saw wasn't aware that Saw existed. Darren Bousman was upset when he learned that his script The Desperate was very similar to this incom](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/9/3/3/744933.jpg?v=2)
![Minority Report was going to be a Total Recall sequel. After the success of the Verhoeven/ Schwarzenegger team-up, Carolco Pictures turned to Minority](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/9/3/2/744932.jpg?v=2)
![CRACKED CO 12 Monkeys (the series) wasn't connected to 12 Monkeys (the movie). Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett never set out to make a show based on](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/9/2/1/744921.jpg?v=2)
![The Hateful Eight started out as a Django novel. Quentin Tarantino had already written a good chunk of Django in White Hell, when he realized that Dja](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/9/3/0/744930.jpg?v=2)
![The Cloverfield sequels weren't meant to be sequels. e 10 Cloverfield Lane was written as The Cellar, and The Cloverfield Paradox was The God Particle](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/9/2/9/744929.jpg?v=2)
![CRACKEDCON The Following was born from Scream. Kevin Williamson came up with The Following while working on Scream. He also used ideas from his abando](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/9/2/3/744923.jpg?v=2)
![Cobra was Sylvester Stallone's Beverly Hills Cop rewrite. Stallone was fired from his role as Axel Foley when he kept pushing to turn the movie into a](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/9/2/8/744928.jpg?v=2)
![I, Robot had nothing to do with Isaac Asimov at first. The script, originally titled Hardwired, was a classic, Agatha Christie-style murder mystery, w](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/9/2/2/744922.jpg?v=2)
![Pitch Black came from a discarded Alien 3 script. Several scripts were written for Alien 3 before David Fincher took over. One of those was turned int](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/9/2/7/744927.jpg?v=2)
![Final Destination was conceived for The X-Files. In 1994, Jeffrey Reddick wrote Flight 180, a script he intended for The X-Files, his favorite show.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/9/2/6/744926.jpg?v=2)
![Cyborg was cobbled together from two different canceled movies. Cannon Films suddenly shut down Masters of the Universe 2 and a Spider-Man movie. The](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/9/2/5/744925.jpg?v=2)
![A sequel to The Professional was turned into a different movie. In Colombiana, Zoe Saldana plays Cataleya, a ruthless assassin out for revenge. The pr](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/9/2/4/744924.jpg?v=2)
![Die Hard began as a sequel to a Sinatra movie. In 1968, Frank Sinatra starred in the movie adaptation of Roderick Thorp's The Detective. When the sequ](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/9/3/4/744934.jpg?v=2)