A enjoyable piece of trivia: considered one of J.J. Abrams’ first skilled gigs was writing the music for Don Dohler’s 1982 horror cheapie “Nightbeast.” Dohler, as B-movie followers would possibly know, is the artistic thoughts behind “The Alien Issue” and “Galaxy Invader,” films that had been filmed principally within the woods. Abrams has since turn into one of many preeminent makers of big-budget mainstream blockbusters (he has directed one “Mission: Unattainable” film, two “Star Trek” films, and two “Star Wars” films), so it is enjoyable to image him as a teen handing over tapes to a hard-working schlockmeister like Dohler.
Abrams caught with it, although, and finally offered a movie remedy to screenwriter Paul Mazursky when he was nonetheless in school. That remedy turned Arthur Hiller’s 1990 comedy “Taking Care of Enterprise” with Jim Belushi. Abrams continued to rise by way of the ranks of Tinseltown from there, penning the scripts for movies like “Relating to Henry,” “Endlessly Younger,” and, uh, “Gone Fishin’.” By the early 2000s, Abrams had sufficient clout to launch his personal studio and co-created the hit spy sequence “Alias.” 2004 then noticed the debut of an much more profitable Abrams creation with “Misplaced,” reworking him right into a everlasting Hollywood fixture.
Across the time he was creating the script for the “Misplaced” pilot, although, Abrams received the sort of cellphone name most Hollywood sorts dream of receiving. It turned out that Steven Spielberg was angling to make a contemporary redux of H.G. Wells’ “Conflict of the Worlds” and wished Abrams to write down the screenplay. As he defined in a 2011 profile in Self-importance Truthful, Abrams was flattered but had the moxie to show Spielberg down, preferring to focus all his consideration on “Misplaced” as an alternative.
J.J. Abrams handed on the Tom Cruise-led Conflict of the Worlds
Know that Spielberg wasn’t cold-calling Abrams. The 2 had a earlier working relationship because of some restoration work Abrams had beforehand carried out. Evidently Abrams, when he was solely about 13 years outdated, was given reels of Spielberg’s outdated 8mm movie shorts and had cleaned them up. Later, in 1995, Abrams was introduced on board the Spielberg-produced live-action movie adaptation of “Casper,” on which he did punch-up and uncredited re-writes.
Spielberg by no means forgot Abrams and sure witnessed the younger man’s subsequent rise by way of Hollywood. By the early 2000s, Spielberg knew what he was able to as a filmmaker and felt he would do nicely to adapt Wells’ traditional novel. Abrams, nevertheless, wasn’t out there because of his dedication to writing the “Misplaced” pilot, which required his full consideration. It is price recalling that the pilot for “Misplaced” was probably the most costly in TV historical past on the time. In an interview with Leisure Weekly (transcribed by Far Out), Abrams as soon as recalled the expertise he had taking a gathering with Spielberg and “Conflict of the Worlds” star Tom Cruise, stating:
“We had this two-hour assembly. I had identified Steven for a couple of years, however it was at all times an out-of-body expertise, and so to compound it with having Cruise on the identical couch, it was freaky.”
After he declined the gig, Abrams admitted, “I felt like I had simply dedicated profession suicide.”
Spielberg in the end employed his frequent collaborator David Koepp to write down “Conflict of the Worlds” as an alternative. In the meantime, Abrams and Cruise stayed in contact, with the actor finally hiring Abrams to co-write and direct “Mission: Unattainable III” in 2006. Then, in 2011, Spielberg served as a co-producer on Abrams’ directorial effort “Tremendous 8,” so all of it got here collectively ultimately. Abrams could have missed out on engaged on “Conflict of the Worlds,” however one might argue that he ended with the extra fascinating initiatives.