We all know the classic story where Marty McFly, played by Eric Stolz, goes back in a time machine and helps his dad become a professional boxer.



Wait ... was that how it happened?



In initial drafts, it was. This illustrates the stark changes a script/shoot can undergo as it drudges through the process of ... well, just being..



In the early '80s, Robert Zemeckis had a deal to write for Columbia Pictures. It was a shrewd move on their part, as Zemeckis had a blockbuster idea about a guy who goes back in time to his high school and meets his parents. Zemeckis worked with producer Bob Gale to hammer out a script that, although in the rough draft phases, had much of the magic that ended up in the final production. Everything was in line for a great film ... until Columbia decided they wanted nothing to do with the project.



Still, Zemeckis and Gale believed in their story so much that they began the arduous task of shopping it to studios, rewriting, then shopping it again. It made the rejection rounds several times, eventually being passed on over 40 times. Finally, the duo tapped their friend Steven Spielberg to back the movie.



You may be wondering why they didn't go right to Spielberg in the first place. Gale explained, "Although we'd done our first three pictures with Steven Spielberg, and he loved our Back to the Future script, we didn't want to make it with him at first. We thought we might become known as those guys who only get work because they're pals with Spielberg. What changed was that Bob had a big surprise hit directing Romancing the Stone. After that, he had proved himself, so we figured it would be fine to work with Steven."



So why were film studios so averse to making this film when in retrospect it seemed like a slam dunk? Maybe the pitch started with "So, Marty's in his underwear getting hit on by his mom." We can only speculate, but it's most likely that the reasons they passed are quite similar to the reasons it became such a hit: It redefined several genres. At the time, successful teenage comedies were raunchy (a la Fast Times at Ridgemont High), sci-fi films tended to be either for kids or the uber-nerdy, and romantic stories tended to have the main characters be, you know, the people involved in the romance. Back to the Future just didn't fit into any of the tidy little boxes that would guarantee revenue.



Eventually, the rewrites led to a story that was a little less zany (early drafts had Marty McFly breaking into a nuclear plant to steal plutonium). Even when the script was finally greenlit and shooting began, the radical changes were not quite done. Eric Stolz was cast as Marty. However after over a month of shooting, the comedy just wasn't coming through. The producers really wanted Michael J. Fox; however, he spent his days filming the hit sitcom Family Ties.

Eventually, Fox revealed himself as such a consummate professional that he proved he could do a full day of shooting for Family Ties followed by eight hours of BttF shooting in the evening. (It's actually a perceptual glass-shattering moment to watch BttF and realize how awkwardly shot some scenes are because Michael J. Fox had to be filmed separately from the rest of the cast.)



Budget: $19 million

Domestic Total Gross: $210,609,762