From Tim Burton's "Jurassic Park" To Spielberg's "Harry Potter": 11 Films That Almost Had Completely Different Directors

Also, an early director of "Jaws" got fired for naming the shark incorrectly.

If you're interested in film, you'll know how many of our fave movies were almost completely different. There are actors who were almost never cast, stories that changed mid-shoot – and yes, directors who the studios switched during filming.

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It's pretty wild to think about how different these movies could have been if they'd taken another director's whole creative vision on. So, we rounded up 11 movies that almost had completely different directors – and yes, we were shaken by lots of them.

1. Chris Columbus almost directed the Spiderman movies instead of Sam Raimi.

Sony Pictures Entertainment

Chris Columbus is the director behind Home Alone, Mrs Doubtfire, and more. But after being approached to direct the blockbuster trilogy, he turned it down to direct Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone instead – you know what, I reckon he probably doesn't have all that much FOMO.

Side note – the director behind Texas Chainsaw Massacre almost took on the Spiderman franchise after Canon bought the rights from Marvel in 1985.

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That's right; Toby Harper could have brought the famous superstar to the big screen long before the MCU existed. And if horror writer Harper seems like a weird choice (gore and horror for a superhero film?), that's because he was. Cannon Film executives Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus misunderstood what Spiderman was really about, mistaking it for a grisly body horror. I guess the choice of Sam Raini, the mastermind behind The Evil Dead, to make the current Spiderman films makes more sense now...

Here he is talking about the project:

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2. Return of the Jedi was almost directed by David Lynch instead of Richard Marquand (think about that for a second).

20th Century Fox

Yes, really – David Lynch, the mastermind behind deeply experimental films like Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and Eraserhead, almost took on the project. He was personally approached by George Lucas, but said he turned it down because he felt sci-fi was best when it was mixed with other genres. I reckon Richard Marquand, director of films like Jagged Edge and Nowhere to Run, did a pretty stellar (teehee) job in his place though – the movie is highly-ranked among fans and critics alike.

Listen to some of the director's thoughts:

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3. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone could have been directed by Steven Spielberg instead of Chris Columbus (remember him, from earlier?)

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Apparently, while Columbus was turning down the Spiderman franchise, Spielberg was saying a kind 'no' to Harry Potter. The Jurassic Park, BFG, and E.T. director passed on the project as it was based in London and would have taken him away from his new family: "I chose to turn down the first ‘Harry Potter’ to basically spend that next year and a half with my family, my young kids growing up. So I’d sacrificed a great franchise, which today looking back I’m very happy to have done, to be with my family,” he said.

Here are some of Columbus' thoughts on the movies:

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4. Sergio Leone was Paramount's first pick for The Godfather instead of Francis Ford Coppola

Paramount

After buying the film rights of the novel for $12,500 in 1970, Paramount felt sure they knew who they wanted to direct The Godfather. Already a legend, Sergio Leona had released everything from A Fistful of Dollars to The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly. Still, Leone turned the project down because he didn't like the story or the "ethics" of the film (he ended up depicting the Mafia on terms he preferred in Once Upon A Time In America). However, Paramount's eventual choice of director Francis Ford Coppola, who has also created Apocalypse Now and Bram Stoker's Dracula, clearly didn't disappoint: the film is a critically-beloved classic.

While we're on the topic – the movie was almost shot and based in St Louis instead of New York

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It seems absolutely wild now, but the higher-ups at Paramount thought New York was too expensive and difficult to film in. Coppola insisted they shoot in the city, and the film company eventually agreed; but they almost lost the iconic director in the process. "They hated the Al Pacino idea. They hated the [Marlon] Brando idea. They hated the fact that I decided to set it in New York and they fought it," said Coppola. Oof.

Tune in to hear what he had to say about the iconic movie:

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5. Titanic was all set to be an Alfred Hitchcock movie – long before James Cameron got the gig

Paramount Pictures

You might know Alfred Hitchcock from movies like, oh, I don't know, Psycho, Rear Window, and North By Northwest. And if that sounds like an unusual fit for the romantic – if yes, deeply tragic – Titanic, well, try telling that to the Paramount bigwigs who brought him over from England for the task in 1939. He ended up not completing the movie; it seems to have fizzled out, despite commissioners apparently offering to buy and sink a real ocean liner for the movie. Paramount held onto the movie rights for another 60 years before letting James Cameron (of Avatar and The Terminator) shoot his literal shot.

Oh, and if that isn't rocking the boat enough (sorry), the 1999 movie almost featured Matthew McConaughey and Gwyneth Paltrow instead of Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet.

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Apparently, Cameron was unsure about Winslet because, as he later told GQ, she'd already been in so many period pieces that she was known as "corset Kate". Other names on the table apparently included Jared Leto (who allegedly refused to audition), Reese Witherspoon, Winona Ryder, and Claire Danes. 

Here's Cameron speaking about Titanic:

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6. The Hobbit was almost made by Guillermo Del Toro instead of Peter Jackson

Warner Bros. Pictures

And it wasn't just a flirtation, either – Del Toro, who's directed movies like Pan's Labyrinth and The Shape of Water, was involved in the Hobbit's pre-production for two whole years. He's a huge Tolkien fan and arrived on set brimming with ideas, spanning the movie out into a two-part, more fairytale-style work. However, MGM wasn't able to keep the project going for as long as it was taking and were reportedly a little low on cash. The Hobbit only eventually got the green light from MGM the month Del Toro left, and Lord of the Rings director Jackson stepped in.

Here's Peter Jackson talking about the movie:

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7. Tim Burton nearly directed Jurassic Park instead of Steven Spielberg

Universal

Sorry, but am I the only one who's absolutely sold on this vision? Tim Burton, the deliciously dark and gothic mind behind The Nightmare Before Christmas, Sweeney Todd, Corpse Bride, and Edward Scissorhands almost directed the dino classic. The race for the book rights was real among directors like Spielberg, Cameron, and yes, Burton too; ultimately, Universal won the rights in 1990. But if competitor Warner Bros. had beat them to it, they had Tim Burton in mind for the job – ugh, someone, commission this remake.

Speaking of that James Cameron option – if he'd had his directorial way, he was going to direct a brutal, Aliens-esque version of the film

Leon Bennett / Getty Images

And if you're wondering if I'm being unfair, the words come from the man himself.  "When I saw the film, I realized that I was not the right person to make (Jurassic Park)," he says. "(Spielberg) was, because he made a dinosaur movie for kids, and mine would’ve been Aliens with dinosaurs, and that wouldn’t have been fair. Dinosaurs are for eight-year-olds.” 

To be fair to the director's grisly vision, the books are very violent...

Here's Spielberg and Cameron chatting about it:

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8. Mel Gibson almost made Good Will Hunting instead of Gus Van Sant

Miramax

When the script was picked up, the first pick for a director was Mel Gibson. The famous face had already directed hit movie Braveheart, so seemed a perfect pick for the task. However, Gibson's uncertainty about the movie meant it wasn't moving quickly enough for Damon's liking. He asked, "Look, man. We’re getting too old. If this keeps going by, Ben and I can’t play these parts. Is there any chance you’d just let it go?" – and so Gibson handed over his own project to indie director Gus Van Sant.

In fact, the movie was originally a thriller

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Yup, Affleck and Damon originally envisioned a fairly gory spy thriller when they wrote the script. "We came up with this idea of the brilliant kid and his townie friends, where he was special and the government wanted to get their mitts on him. And it had a very Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run sensibility," Affleck said.

Here are some of the director's thoughts:

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9. Jaws almost went to Dick Richards instead of Steven Spielberg (and got fired for a hilarious reason)

Universal Pictures

Dick Richards wasn't the producer's first pick for the director of Jaws. Originally, John Sturges – the man behind The Old Man and the Sea – was meant to direct the movie, before the studios moved onto Richards. The director, who has also made Heat and Tootsie, landed the gig because of his Western movie The Culpepper Cattle Co., and all seemed to be going well. However, he was fired from the movie for a hilarious reason: he kept calling the shark a whale, and it drove the film's producers up the wall. Producer Richard Zanuck says that "Richards went on to tell more about how he would approach the story, and again he said, ‘Then when the whale attacks the boat…’ and I shouted, ‘Shark! Shark!’…When lunch was over, we called Medavoy and said, ‘Everything went great, but we want to get rid of the director because he thinks it’s a whale!'”. 

Well, good news for Spielberg, I guess...

Here's Spielberg talking about the !!!SHARK!!!...

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10. Marc Forster almost made Dallas Buyers Club instead of Jean-Marc Vallée

Anne Marie Fox

Forget going through multiple directors – Dallas Buyer's Club was a movie that almost never got made at all. Written by filmmaker Craig Borten in 1992, Forster – who had earned some Hollywood buzz due to his successful film Monster's Ball – finally got his hands on the movie and was ready to kick it into gear in 2001. But something always seemed to be going wrong with production, and in the end, his version never got made. Later, Jean-Marc Vallée picked up the project.

And apparently, the film's executive producer funded the entire project in three days

Photo By Mike Kline (notkalvin) / Getty Images

After realising that the film was finally being floated to get made, Cassian Elwes – who had been there since the beginning – called in every favour he could to get it off the ground ASAP. Specifically, that favour was $3 million from Nic Chartier (pretty wild contacts list, right?).

Here's the director talking about a famous scene:

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11. David Cronenberg nearly directed Total Recall instead of Paul Verhoeven

Tri-Star Pictures

The director behind The Fly and Scanner originally signed up to direct the sci-fi movie, and unlike a couple of movies on this list, the body horror-bound match actually made a lot of sense. But Cronenberg ended up feeling that the movie had become too broad. He loved the story, originally writing twelve drafts for the movie – but when "(higher-ups) said "‘No, we want this movie to be like ‘Raiders of The Lost Ark’ goes to Mars’," Cronenberg apparently said “'Okay, well, I’m not doing that movie.'" Still, Total Recall went on to win an honorary Oscar in 1991.

Here are some of Paul Verhoeven's thoughts:

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Have we missed any films that almost had completely different directors? Let us know in the comments below!