Leave it to the internet to reveal some offbeat movie trivia. Due to a viral Twitter prompt, it was revealed that director James Gunn and Being John Malkovich screenwriter Charlie Kaufman once tried to pitch a very dark Gilligan’s Island movie adaptation.
This tidbit was revealed as a result of a “pitch a movie in two pictures” challenge on social media. James Gunn chose the cast of Gilligan’s Island and a drawing of cannibals cooking body parts over a fire. Once the pic was posted, James Gunn went into a story on Twitter on the concept he pitched and it certainly involved those on the island turning against each other and resorting to cannibalism. You can check out Gunn’s tweets below!
Gilligans Island aired on CBS between 1964 and 1967 and was even revived in sequel TV movies from 1978 through 1982. Despite a relatively short initial run, the series became a big hit in syndication in the ’80s and ’90s. The show followed a group of seven people taking what was supposed to be a three-hour boat tour until they are thrown off course by a typhoon and become shipwrecked on a remote island.
Sherwood Schwartz believed that the wholesome nature of the show which depicted disparate people being forced to get along was the true appeal of the series. In one interview Schwartz said, “Where could they be that they had to get along with each other? That was the idea of the show, and it’s the most important idea in the world today. For people who toss away the show as a silly, broad comedy, it’s deeper than that.” Given his stance on Gilligan’s Island, I doubt he would want to see a version where they turn on each other and have to turn to cannibalism to survive.
Would YOU want to see a dark Gilligan’s Island movie?