[IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Lee would be good in that role. When he did chose to act as a producer he got quality results. He wasn't a business man though and a couple of his really good projects got smashed by timing rather than poor quality.

From what I understand, Tolkien and Lee actually did discuss a live-action adaptation of either The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, with Lee indeed being set to take the role of Gandalf, but it never happened. A world where it did would be interesting.

On the topic of movies, IIRC when Mel Brooks set out to make Spaceballs, there was - understandable - some concern he'd wind up with his pants sued off by George Lucas. So he met with Lucas, and the two came to an agreement - Mel could make his parody, and have fun with it, but he was not to market any toys or other merchandise to go with it (that being where Lucas made most of his money off of Star Wars, and thus not wanting the competition). In a world where the two didn't have such an arrangement, genuine Spaceballs merchandise would likely be something you could buy on the cheap (particularly if the timeline is set not too far after the release of the movie), and Homeline fans of the movie may be willing to pay a pretty penny for.

You could also have movies with simply different casting. Last Action Hero had a humorous sequence where the kid took the titular hero (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) into a movie store, hoping to prove to him he was in a movie by showing him other movies "he" had starred in... only to discover Sylvester Stallone on the cover of every single Schwarzenegger movie they could find. The Terminator series starring Sylvester Stallone - and perhaps the Rambo/First Blood series starring Arnold Schwarzenegger - could be interesting. There's also a rumor - I don't know if it's true - that initially James Cameron wanted Arnold to play the part of Kyle Reese, reasoning you'd need a really strong guy to go up against a terminator, but later changed his mind - collectors might be interested in seeing what would have happened if he didn't.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Varyon

. There's also a rumor - I don't know if it's true - that initially James Cameron wanted Arnold to play the part of Kyle Reese, reasoning you'd need a really strong guy to go up against a terminator, but later changed his mind - collectors might be interested in seeing what would have happened if he didn't.

A little after release at least the story (in a magazine I think) was that it was Arnold who requested the change to the Terminator. This also put the kibosh on early plans to have OJ Simpson be the Terminator.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

A little after release at least the story (in a magazine I think) was that it was Arnold who requested the change to the Terminator. This also put the kibosh on early plans to have OJ Simpson be the Terminator.

That's also what I heard, but then there's a conflicting story about how James Cameron convinced Arnold to give it a shot (allegedly, Arnold's agent wanted nothing to do with it, seeing as Arnold's star was on the rise and Cameron was a relatively nobody) by drawing a picture of Arnold as the Terminator (presumably with missing bits of skin revealing metal and probably the iconic glowing red eye). If Cameron wanted Arnie to play the part of Reese, why would he send him concept art of Arnie as the Terminator instead? Of course, watching a movie featuring OJ with the objective of murdering a woman portrayed by an actress around the same age as and with a somewhat-similar look to Nicole Brown (who wasn't yet married to OJ at the time of The Terminator's release) might be a little uncomfortable to modern viewers, particularly considering the Terminator winds up killing said woman's lover and very nearly kills her...

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Varyon

That's also what I heard, but then there's a conflicting story about how James Cameron convinced Arnold to give it a shot .

Absolutely not the contemporaneous story. It smells like somebody's retcon to me.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Absolutely not the contemporaneous story. It smells like somebody's retcon to me.

I heard both accounts relatively recently; I can't state which may have been running the rounds when the movie first came out, as it came out around the time I first opened my eyes.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Varyon

I heard both accounts relatively recently; I can't state which may have been running the rounds when the movie first came out, as it came out around the time I first opened my eyes.

<shrug> I was 24 and reading the right sorts of magazines back then (pre-internet).

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

<shrug> I was 24 and reading the right sorts of magazines back then (pre-internet).

Well, also "Rising star suggests the change that helps make movie into a resounding success" arguably makes for a better story (and further advances Arnold's brand) than "Actor decides to give unknown director a shot because he thinks he looks cool in the concept art," so it makes sense for the former to be the story that was being published at the time. Which one is true? I have no idea; I certainly like the former version better. But either could be the basis of an alternate The Terminator - one with Arnold as Reese and OJ as the T-800, or one with Biehn as Reese (as in our timeline) and OJ as the T-800... or maybe even one with Arnold as Reese and Biehn as the T-800. There's also a rumor Biehn was originally set to play as the T-1000 in the sequel, presumably as a ploy to trick Sarah or otherwise play on her emotions, which could make for an interesting alternate. On the topic of Biehn in sequels, there's a rumor that when Cameron made Aliens, Biehn signed a two-movie contract; when another director was chosen and Hicks killed off, the production studio was still required to pay Biehn. This appears to be false (apparently Biehn actually sued 20th Century Fox for an unauthorized portrayal of his likeness in the third film, which wouldn't make sense if he was paid as though he were in the movie), but digging a bit deeper I found that the original screenplay of the movie (written by William freaking Gibson, seriously were the producers smoking to go with what we actually got instead?) did indeed call for Biehn to have a major role; an alternate where they stuck with Gibson's version could have a market on Homeline.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Well, also "Rising star suggests the change that helps make movie into a resounding success" arguably makes for a better story (and further advances Arnold's brand) than "Actor decides to give unknown director a shot because he thinks he looks cool in the concept art," so it makes sense for the former to be the story that was being published at the time. Which one is true? I have no idea; .

There's also a memetically self-spreading Cult of the Auteur where certain people work to deny credit fro anything good or even clever to anyone but the Director.

At the time Arnold was not a big star even if he had a certain name recognition. In a way the original Terminator movie made him a biggish star to be later confirmed in other movies (Commando/Predator/T2).

I find it utterly believable that a shrewd self-promoter recognized which role would get him more screen time and fit his image better. I give Linda Hamilton a lot of credit for T2. She's the one that made the Sarah Conner we were told about in T1 believable in T2.

[Astromancer]

Here's a nice simple valuable. The fossilized remains of a now extinct jellyfish. These look like fairly ordinary smooth stones but they are thermoluminescent. (Yes I read Piper's Little Fuzzy, why do you ask?) When worn next to the skin these stones glow with a soft and lovely light.

Homeline has no idea why these jellyfish became fossils, it's very rare for invertebrates to become fossils at all. Invertebrates becoming fossilized as stonelike objects is unheard of on Homeline. However, these stones glow with a soft clear light often in gently changing colors. They are widely sought after.

Jewelers pay top dollar for these stones.

[PTTG]

John Steinbeck was a lifelong smoker, likely the cause of his death in the 1968 flu pandemic. In this worldline, his friend Ed Ricketts noted the danger of cigarettes from time to time. It was little change, but change enough to get Steinbeck through the pandemic. He would go on to live twenty more years, writing ten additional novels and having two new wives.