8 Great Movies Saved By Ridiculously Last Minute Changes

movies take a long time to make like a

ridiculously long time which makes it

more surprising that more often than

you'd expect some of the biggest

decisions in a movie's development can

happen actually right at the last minute

just before the final edit's been locked

in are sometimes even afterwards and

with that in mind I'm Josh from

whatculture.com and these are eight

great movies saved by ridiculously last

minute changes number eight Hugh Jackman

wasn't cast as Wolverine until three

weeks into shooting X-Men Hugh Jackman

is Wolverine and even when they

eventually recast him for the MCU Hugh

Jackman will always be Wolverine from

this standpoint then it's somewhat crazy

to think that before the star making

turn in X-Men he was a total unknown

outside of musical circles having only

starred into Australian movies so

obscure you don't even have to pretend

to have seen them and were enough for a

troubled action sequel things could have

easily stared that way as he very nearly

wasn't will Wolverine at all it was do

Grace Scott who was initially cast as

Weapon X in the original revolutionary

superhero film but he had to pull out at

the last minute to finish shooting on

Mission Impossible 2. despite the

setback the studio was clearly Holding

Out for Scott to get free as Jackman

wasn't actually rushed in as a

replacement until the movie had already

been shooting for a three full week

period Scott probably felt okay at first

but all of these years later you have to

wonder whether he kicks himself about

having to give up the opportunity also

while we're on the subject let me know

in the comments who you want to see cast

as the mcu's Wolverine they certainly

have big claws to fill for me honestly I

can't like Town Edgerton 7. Dante dies

clerks clerks is the ultimate Indie

slacker movie One whose Mumble

core-esque framework is still used as

great inspiration today of course the

cult classic revolves around hero Dante

and best friend Randall during a day at

the quick stop that Dante wasn't even

supposed to be working they talk about

movies girls and the two Stoners who

pitch up outside and their lives remain

pretty mundane of course as is now movie

Law it wasn't always supposed to be this

way in fact there was originally an

explosive and very Bleak end to the tale

with dantail literally being killed by

this job as a gunman robbed the star and

shot the clerk behind the desk of course

this would have not only impacted the

movie's reception but would have killed

the clerk's franchise debt now to you

that might actually be a better reality

but incidentally it would have also

robbed Clerk's 3 of its dramatic ending

where this time around and huge spoilers

by the way Dante actually does Die For

Real admittedly it's thanks to a heart

attack rather than a Goodman but still

it's a much more thoughtfully

implemented send-off though no less

divisive in the fan base 6. the original

ending was removed a week after release

The Shining Stanley Kubrick was never

one to do something in half measures and

so when he wanted to make a last minute

change to one of his films he did it

after the movie had already gone on

General release now the ending of The

Shining is nothing shy of masterful

after Dany and his mother escaped

leaving Jack to freeze to death in the

Mayors we could to inside the Overlook

Hotel slowly zooming in on a photograph

of the 1921 4th of July ball which

somehow features Jack himself front and

center it gives you chills every time

along with a fair bit of head scratching

time afterwards in Kubrick's original

code however there was a further scene

that picks up with Dany and Wendy after

their scarring experience here Hotel

manager Dr Ullman visits the pair in

hospital to tell Wendy that Jack's body

hasn't been found and to give Dany a

tennis ball just like the one that lured

him into room 237 it asks more questions

than it answers and we still have no

clue what the malicious power behind the

events were but also puts the onus on

the ghostly Hotel itself rather than the

family Dynamic and Jack's Madness

Kubrick only realized this wasn't the

best resolution a week into the film's

theatrical run and rather than lamenting

his mistake and releasing a director's

cut down the line he immediately forced

projectionists to remove the sequence

and for completion return it to the

studio for Destruction as a result All

That Remains of the scene now is a

couple of Granny Stills like I said no

half measures number 5. Peter Jackson

spent most of pre-production planning to

make only two movies The Lord of the

Rings in a situation pretty much

identical to Scott and Jackman Aragon

was almost played by Stuart Townsend in

The Lord of the Rings only to be

replaced by Vigor Mortensen the day

before shooting began but that's only

getting as far as hobbiton in the vast

Middle Earth of last minute developments

in the production of The Lord of the

Rings trilogy because as crazy as it may

sound the idea of making JRR Mammoth

Tome which let's remember did initially

release in print in three parts as a

Trilogy was an obscenely Fantastical

idea even it seems for Trilogy lover

Peter Jackson himself as his original

pitch for the Lord of the Rings was a

two movie story with a third for The

Hobbit which after a protracted

negotiation stage that involved a failed

attempt at King Kong was approved by

Miramax when the budget spiraled however

Bob Weinstein barked and chose to bail

on the project when Jackson tried to

sell the production to new line Cinema

they too questioned the number of films

only in the other direction part

creatively motivated part financially

they suggested bumping the pitch up to

three movies and the rest is history

hilariously the reverse outcome happened

with The Hobbit as originally That was

supposed to be a two-parter but Jackson

bumped it up to a Trilogy six months

before release after principal

photography was well over and yeah we

know how well that one turned out still

still one out of two in bad number four

test audiences stopped Scott ending up

with knives Scott Pilgrim Vs the World

Scott Pilgrim Vs the World ends with the

titular slacker hero flying off into

Subspace with his new girlfriend Ramona

Flowers after defeating her seven evil

exes in physical combat it's pretty

weird although not as weird as the

alternate ending which sees Scott go

through all of the video game infused

action only to eventually pair up with

his teenage X knives and you know what's

even weirder than all that the ultimate

one was actually the original finale for

the film and the one Edgar Wright

initially cut in for the theatrical

release but enter test audiences who in

a rare W this time actually improved

Scott Pilgrim because they hated the

initial ending the scars from test

screenings were lore with audiences

confused as to why Scott and Ramona

didn't get together after everything

they went through right in the studio

realized this and shot the new

thematically fitting conclusion the

number three George Lucas only

remembered Obi-Wan had to pick up

Anakin's lightsaber in reshoots Star

Wars episode 3 Revenge of the Sith even

though the Star Wars prequel trilogy

spent most of its seven hour run time

obsessed with tying itself into the

original movies originally George Lucas

very almost missed out a crucial moment

essential to the franchise's narrative

see in a New Hope as we all know Obi-Wan

gives Luke his father's lightsaber

saying your father wanted you to have

this when you were old enough given the

subsequent reveal that Anakin was of

course Vader it was assumed that there

was some twisting of the words going on

here but the impact of the Baton being

passed was still there and it's one of

Star Wars most pivotal and memorable

moments yet in the original cut of

Revenge of the Sith Obi-Wan sliced

Anakin up and watched him burn and just

walked away leaving the essential

lightsaber on the Sands of Mustafa it

was only when pickups rolled around that

Lucas realized his error and he quickly

added in a shot of Obi-Wan picking it up

and and continuity was in the moment

thankfully preserved number two Disney

made a cinematic release with only nine

months left of production Toy Story 2.

unsurprisingly for the series that

single-handedly turned animation on its

head Toy Story's Journey to the big

screen was far from playing sailing the

first suffered from a complete

production shutdown and rewrite of the

script when Disney took stock of the

well into production film and realized

their corporate meddling had impeded

Pixar from making the movie to the best

of their abilities leading to a complete

change of Woody's character in

particular Toy Story 2 somehow was only

more fraught see the film was originally

conceived as a director video sequel in

the spirit of Disney's other many

tashins and wasn't even an official

Pixar production at first it did involve

the Studio's key creatives but was

treated as a separate project however

when it became clear from the early

drafts that there was something more

special here than Cinderella 2 Dreams

Come true the film was bumped up to a

tentpulse cinema release all good except

that the time frame for this change was

incredibly tight as the studio had only

nine months to take the rudimentary and

cheap version and hand in the polished

finished product but boy did they pull

it off they added in 12 minutes of story

including the video game set opening and

the entire character of Wheezy and

wounded up making a film inexplicably

better than the original sadly though

the lesson still wasn't learned and in

the mid-90s Disney star production on

another director DVD Toy Story sequel

this time Toy Story 3 which was

thankfully saved again number one

Juggernaut originally broke Magneto out

of prison not Quicksilver X-Men Days of

Future Past we started with X-Men and it

only makes sense to finish with it as

well because my friends this is one

creatively fraught franchise well last

minute changes can either make or in the

case of dark Phoenix break the whole

thing quicksilver in X-Men dares of

Future Past was a huge highlight

completely obliterating the mcu's take

on the hero in Avengers Age of Ultron

the X-Man was after all the central part

of Days of Future Past most memorable

scene that being a slo-mo sequence where

he saves Xavier Wolverine and Magneto

from Pentagon security hell is the scene

that the X-Men franchise continued to

try the top and ultimately just never

could but that sequence and maximoff

himself were almost completely absent

from the film as the original plan was

to have a younger version of Juggernaut

help break Magneto out of the Pentagon

with this switch made to Quicksilver not

happening until the film was lurching

towards principal photography while the

change is well patched up in the final

cut this does also explain why Wolverine

says he knew an older quicksilver in the

future despite no previous movie showing

that though if we get into other X-Men

plot holes well we'll be here all there

so that's our list I want to know what

you guys think down in the comments

below what do you think of these last

minute changes and are there any other

mind-blowing ones I missed off here let

me know and while you're down there if

you could please give us a like share

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whatculture.com for more lists and news

like this every single day even if you

don't know I've been Josh thank you so

much for watching and I'll see you soon

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