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The name, J.J. Abrams evokes a lot of emotions in anyStar Warsfan. But way before he came on board the Sequel Trilogy, the director was set to work with Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg on their second film afterMinority Report. However, things didn’t go as planned.
Abrams is now a feted and acclaimed director. But about two decades back, when he was just starting to make his mark in Hollywood, the writer-director made a choice that shocked many. He left the Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg film to forge his own path. But did his gamble ultimately pay off?
J.J. Abrams Left Major Tom Cruise And Steven Spielberg Film ForLost
In 2005, after makingMinority Report, Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise teamed up to adapt H. G. Wells’ 1898 novel,The War of the Worldsin a new way. IMDb reports that Cruise and Spielberg askedJ.J. Abramsto pen down the script. However, the director turned down the opportunity and prioritized working on hisLostTV series.
Read More:“His leg broke and his ankle went sideways”: J.J. Abrams Broke His Back Trying to Save 80 Year Old Harrison Ford After an Accident While Shooting Star Wars
Spielberg and Cruise then got Josh Friedman to write the screenplay forWar of the Worlds. Later on, David Koepp came in to rewrite it. Koepp changed multiple things about the film, like keeping a singular narrator all because he wanted“a very limited point of view, from someone on the very periphery of events rather than someone involved in events.”He also didn’t use cliches like the destruction of major landmarks by aliens. Spielberg did accept the script, but he made several changes to it.
For one, he didn’t want aliens to arrive in spaceships since that had been done to death. Also, he changed the origins of the destructive Martian tripods, ensuring that they were now found on Earth, buried underground. These changes worked since the movie collected a whopping $603 million at the box office against a budget of $132 million. But what about J.J. Abrams’Lost?
Read More:“Then I got the call from Tom Cruise”: After Losing Top Gun 2 Role, X-Men Star Nicholas Hoult Turned Down Major Role in Mission Impossible 7 for Surprising Reason
The Success OfLostAnd J.J. Abrams’ Teamup With Tom Cruise
J.J. Abrams is credited as one of the executive producers and creators ofLost. The series has received about 50 Emmy Nominations in total. It won the 2005 Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series and J.J. Abrams took home the Emmy for best direction for the episodes titledPilot, Part 1andPilot, Part 2.
Apart from this, the show enjoyed a dedicated fan following and became a landmark show that changed the way TV shows were seen forever. So it doesn’t look like J.J. Abrams committed a fatal mistake by not choosingWar of the Worlds. Also, he got another chance to work with Tom Cruise when he made his feature directorial debut withMission Impossible 3.
Read More:Tom Cruise Made a Gargantuan $130M Salary for 2005 Steven Spielberg Movie That Never Got a Sequel
The Hollywood Reporter also stated that it was J.J. Abrams who revived the then waning franchise. The site wrote,“Abrams and Bad Robot’s involvement would reframe what a Mission: Impossible movie could be, and establish a tone and narrative template that made the franchise what it is today. Without it, there would be no Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation, or Fallout — three of the genre’s greatest films.”
Tom Cruiseis now rolling out his 7thMission Impossiblefilm this year and J.J. Abrams is busy helming a film adaptation of Stephen King’s 2021 novelBilly Summersfor WB.
War of the WorldsandLostare both available on Amazon Prime Video.
Source:IMDbandTHR
Ishita Chatterjee
Content Writer
Articles Published :752
Ishita is an Entertainment Writer at FandomWire, majorly focusing on TV shows, with over 700 articles published. She has been working in the entertainment and pop-culture niche for more than 4 years. With a English Literature degree, Ishita generally covers news and analyses on Foundation, Ted Lasso, Severance, and more.A lifelong DC fan, Ishita spends her time watching and re-watching everything in the DC universe (yes, even including the Arrowverse shows).
