Prometheus

Prometheus

Prometheus represents one of the stranger script leaks, considering the leak actually happened after the film was released, yet still had a profound effect. Let’s start at the beginning. People were excited about Ridley Scott’s latest foray into science fiction, but disappointment soon ensued. The film was riddled with iffy mythology and extensional themes that didn’t quite fit.

There was also a distinct lack of aliens. Sure, the film made money, probably buying Scott enough favour to get funding for The Counsellor – another disappointing effort from the once-legendary director – but sci-fi fanatics weren’t pleased. Then came the leak, which actually frustrated fans further with what seemed like a much better film. It was darker, more simplistic in its methods and came from Jon Spaihts, who was the key writer on the project before Damon Lindelof came on board.

Citizen Kane

William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper magnate who provided much of the inspiration for main character Charles Foster Kane, attempted to bury Orsen Welles’s directorial debut before it even left the ground. He managed to get his ink-stained paws on the script early via Welles’s collaborator, Herman J. Mankiewicz.

Apparently, according to an essay written by Pauline Kael, Mankiewicz – fondly known as ‘Mank’ – was so proud of his work, he sent a copy to his friend Charles Lederer, who just so happened to be the nephew of Marion Davies – Hearst’s mistress.

“It was probably as a result of Mankiewicz’s idiotic indiscretion,” Kael writes, “that the various forces were set into motion that resulted in the cancellation of the premiere at the Radio City Music Hall, the commercial failure of Citizen Kane, and the subsequent failure of Orson Welles.”

Citizen Kane