It Never Made the Cut Trivia Quiz

Answer: Fatal Attraction

The ending that was originally shot for "Fatal Attraction" saw the jilted Alex (Glenn Close) framing her ex-lover, Dan (Michael Douglas), for her "murder", by committing suicide with a knife that he had handled earlier in the film, leaving his fingerprints on it.

After Dan was arrested by the police, his wife Beth (Anne Archer) found an audiotape recording made by Alex in which she promised to kill herself if he ever left her, and the movie ended with Beth rushing to the police with her discovery, giving some hope to the audience that Dan's frame wouldn't stick.

Although this ending had a beautiful kind of poetry to it (Alex slashed her own throat to the strains of Puccini's "Madame Butterfly"), test audiences felt that it was a bit of a letdown, prompting the filmmakers to reassemble the cast and crew for three more weeks to shoot the more conventional three-way confrontation that eventually concluded the movie.

The final ending was certainly a more satisfying one for audiences, as it depicted Dan and Beth defending themselves from the psychotic Alex, and taking a much more active role in bringing about her downfall.

Answer: Jabba the Hutt

Two of the more memorable characters in "Star Wars" (1977) were Han Solo and Chewbacca, a pair of intergalactic smugglers who were desperate to raise money to pay off a debt owed to Jabba the Hutt, a local crime lord. In the original version of the film, Jabba was only ever mentioned by name, and was not shown on-screen until his appearance in 1983's "The Return of the Jedi", where he was revealed to be a grotesque, slug-like alien. For "Star Wars", George Lucas had originally shot a scene between Han and Jabba in the hangar bay for the Millennium Falcon which took place after the confrontation in the Cantina between Han and Greedo, one of Jabba's henchmen.

In that scene, Jabba was portrayed by an Irish actor wearing a furry brown coat - a performance that Lucas had intended to replace with a stop-motion alien, but the scene was ultimately scrapped amidst concerns over the budget and timing.

In terms of exposition, the scene also covered the same ground as the earlier scene between Han and Greedo, making it fairly redundant.

The scene was included in the 1997 "Special Edition" re-release of "Star Wars", with a CGI-rendered Jabba in place of the actor who originally portrayed him. The substitution resulted in a few odd moments in the scene, such as Han stepping on Jabba's tail while making his way around the obese alien, as well as the moment at the end of the scene where Han referred to Jabba as "a wonderful human being".

Answer: Elliott being sent to the principal's office in school.

Steven Spielberg was in Tunisia filming 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" when he met up with screenwriter Melissa Mathison, who was there to visit her then-boyfriend (and future husband), actor Harrison Ford. During her visit, Mathison and Spielberg talked shop, and Spielberg told her about an idea he had for a film about a benevolent alien who befriends a young boy after getting left behind on Earth by his companions.

The idea captured Mathison's imagination, and within eight weeks she had written the first draft of what was to become Spielberg's next movie - "E.T.

The Extra Terrestrial". Mathison's original script had a scene that took place after Elliott, the protagonist, wreaked havoc in his school's science lab by releasing all the frogs that were waiting to be dissected.

In the scene, Elliott was sent to see the school's principal, who was portrayed by none other than Indiana Jones himself: Harrison Ford. Spielberg shot the scene with Ford sitting behind a desk in a dimly lit office, so that he was always obscured in the shadows. Ford's voice was, however, unmistakable throughout the sequence, and Spielberg eventually removed the scene as he felt that Ford's superstar presence would detract from the rest of the film.

Answer: Trail of the Pink Panther

Peter Sellers had portrayed the bungling Inspector Clouseau in five "Pink Panther" films for United Artists between 1963 and 1978, so it seemed quite understandable that the studio would want him to reprise his role in the 1982 sequel "Trail of the Pink Panther".

The only problem: Sellers was unavailable, having died two years earlier from a sudden heart attack. Well, you can't keep a good film franchise down, so rather than exclude the character from the sequel, or re-cast the part with another actor, the filmmakers salvaged about 30 minutes of unused scenes and other outtakes of Sellers that never made it into the earlier "Pink Panther" movies, and cobbled together a storyline to fit around them.

As this was evidently insufficient to make up a full-length feature, the bulk of the movie consisted of long excerpts of memorable scenes from all the earlier films, with a nonsensical framing device of a reporter interviewing Clouseau's family and acquaintances that was employed to trigger these "flashbacks". Unsurprisingly, the end result of these strained efforts was replete with continuity errors, and film critics and fans of the franchise derided the film as being exploitative and executed in poor taste. Sellers' widow, Lynne Frederick, labeled the film "appalling" and "an insult to [Sellers'] memory", and sued United Artists for failing to obtain the consent of Sellers or his personal representatives to use the footage of him in this manner.

The widow prevailed, and the UK Courts awarded almost $1.5 million in damages, account of profits and interest to Sellers' estate.

Answer: Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando)

The scene in question in "The Godfather, Part II" (1974) featured all of the Corleone children gathered at home to celebrate their father's birthday, at which point Michael (Al Pacino) announced to his family that he had joined the Marines in response to the recent attack on Pearl Harbor.

The original script had Vito Corleone responding to this news by admonishing his youngest son for "risking his life for strangers", and informing him that he had plans for him. Marlon Brando was scheduled to reprise his Award-winning role as Vito Corleone in this short scene, but director Francis Ford Coppola was forced to improvise when Brando failed to show up on the day of shooting (reputedly because he was still unhappy with Paramount over his pay for the first "Godfather" movie). Coppola rewrote the scene on the spot, and gave the lines originally intended for Vito to Tom Hagen and Sonny Corleone, leaving Fredo as the only Corleone sibling to show any support for Michael in this scene (a bitter irony, considering what Michael had done to Fredo earlier in the film). Coppola was also forced to depict Vito's arrival off-screen by showing everyone running out of the frame to greet him at the front door, and keeping the camera focused on Michael alone at the dining room table, contemplating his future.

In the end, the scene played out with more resonance because of this, and Coppola even reflected later that the scene turned out better without Brando's involvement.

Answer: Regan crawling down the stairs like a spider.

The classic horror film "The Exorcist" was notorious for featuring a shaking, levitating bed, some head-turning special effects, and a large quantity of projectile vomit (which was made primarily out of Andersen's pea soup). However, film audiences in 1973 never got to see the scene depicting Regan (Linda Blair) crawling impossibly down the stairs like a spider with her body arched backwards on all fours.

This "spider-walk" scene also featured in William Peter Blatty's original novel, where he described Regan as "gliding spiderlike" down the stairs with "her tongue flicking quickly in and out of her mouth". Director William Friedkin filmed the intense scene by having a contortionist in a harness "walk" down the stairs while connected by flying wires to a rig that was fitted over the staircase.

The sequence was removed by Friedkin from the original theatrical release because he disagreed with its placement in the film. "It was quite early in the story," Friedkin explained, "and we hadn't yet seen any of the massive manifestations that were to come.

At that point in the narrative, I just thought it was too much." Friedkin changed his mind, however, when he restored the sequence to the film for its re-release in 2000, and even added CGI effects to make it more disturbing. After waiting for almost 30 years, movie audiences were finally given the chance to see the infamous "spider-walk" scene in its original sequence in the film.

Answer: Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Director Steven Spielberg originally wanted more time to complete "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", but he was rushed into releasing it in November 1977 by Columbia Pictures, who were trying to stave off financial ruin. As a result, Spielberg never got the chance to film certain scenes in his original script, and had less time to edit the picture than he would have liked.

Despite that, the film went on to become one of the biggest blockbusters of the year, which gave Spielberg the leverage to convince Columbia to let him film additional scenes and re-cut the picture so that it conformed to his original vision for the film.

The studio agreed, but only on the condition that Spielberg included a sequence showing the interior of the alien mothership that featured in the film's climax. Spielberg gave in to their request, and re-cut the film by changing the order of various scenes and shortening others to improve the pace of the film.

He also added about seven minutes of footage that was left on the cutting room floor in 1977, and about six minutes of newly shot footage, including the requested scene of the inside of the alien spaceship. "Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Special Edition" was released in theatres in August 1980 to even more favorable reviews than the original version, and netted an additional $15.7 million for the studio. Years later, Spielberg would revisit the film yet again, producing a revised "Collector's Edition" for its release on home video and laserdisc in 1998, and notably removed the sequence showing the inside of the mothership, as he felt that it lessened the mystery of the alien visitors.

Answer: Her voice

While this fact was not publicized by the movie studio at the time of the film's release, "Greystoke" subsequently became famous for discarding all of Andie MacDowell's spoken lines during post-production in favor of a vocal dub performed by an un-credited actress.

The filmmakers were apparently concerned that audiences would not be able to understand MacDowell through her thick southern accent, so all of her lines in the film were dubbed over by Glenn Close, in an ironic turn of events. Close had been passed over for the role of Jane earlier, and she only agreed to record the dialogue on the condition that she receive no credit for her work. Close wasn't the only person involved in "Greystoke" who didn't want their name associated with the film. Screenwriter Robert Towne was reportedly so upset about losing creative control over his script that he asked for his name in the film's credits to be replaced with that of his sheepdog, P.H. Vazak.

The film went on to be nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award, making P.H. Vazak the first dog to be nominated for an Oscar.

Answer: Audrey II embarking on a wild rampage through New York City.

The off-Broadway musical ended with Audrey II devouring the protagonists, Seymour and Audrey, before multiplying and taking over the world. In a nod to the musical, the original ending of the film adaptation also saw Seymour and Audrey losing their lives to the "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space", followed by a special-effects laden sequence depicting Audrey II and its offspring terrorizing New York City to the tune of "Don't Feed the Plants".

The sequence, which apparently cost about $5 million to film, featured scenes of the killer plants prowling the streets of New York City like some horrible, botanical version of Godzilla, and attacking the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building and, finally, the Statue of Liberty.

Unfortunately, test audiences couldn't handle seeing their favorite characters, Seymour and Audrey, being eaten by the vicious plant, so their death scene (and everything that followed) was replaced by a new sequence showing Seymour rescuing Audrey, and destroying Audrey II by electrocution.

A black and white version of the original ending was included as a special feature on a 1998 DVD release of the movie, but it was quickly recalled by Warner Bros. after David Geffen, the film's producer, objected to the inclusion of the sequence on the disc.

Answer: Back to the Future

Robert Zemeckis had reportedly shot about a third of "Back to the Future" with Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly, before he was replaced by a different actor. Everyone who was involved in the decision agreed that Stoltz was a very good actor, but the consensus was that he just looked uncomfortable "doing some of the things that weren't natural to him". Michael J. Fox had been the filmmakers' first choice to play Marty McFly, but he was unavailable to make the film because of his commitment to the television show "Family Ties". Meredith Baxter-Birney, the actress who played Fox's mother on that show, was absent from several episodes during the 1984 season due to her real-life pregnancy, so Fox's role had been increased significantly to make up for that.

The producers of "Family Ties" wouldn't release Fox to make "Back to the Future", so the filmmakers embarked on an extensive casting process before finally settling on Stoltz. By the time they realized that Stoltz was unsuitable, so much time had passed that Meredith Baxter had returned from her maternity leave, so the filmmakers again tried to secure their first choice as Marty.

The producers of "Family Ties" agreed to release Fox to make the film on the condition that the television show would be his first priority. Everyone involved agreed to that stipulation, and Michael J. Fox's typical day for the duration of the shoot consisted of waking up at 9 a.m. and working on "Family Ties" from 10 a.m. to 6.30 p.m., before driving over to the Universal lot to shoot "Back to the Future" until the wee hours of the morning.