http://io9.com/12-happy-accidents-that-helped-save-science-fiction-1577525189 Let's have fun with this and add our own
1. Lonely girls runs off with crazy boyfriend. Takes part in weird story competition hosted by Lord Byron. Invents Science Fiction!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley#Lake_Geneva_and_Frankenstein 2 H.G. Wells entire sad childhood http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells#Early_life
Though I would hesitate to recommend that anyone read all of Wells's semiautobiographical The New Machiavelli, the opening sections, where he plays a lot with blocks, using them to build imaginary cities that he takes refuge in, will really resonate with anyone who grew up playing with Lego, and you can see how he would have ended up being into "worldbuilding" in the end.
I don't know if these things "saved" science fiction but I certainly can't imagine the cinematic sci-fi landscape without them: George Lucas fails to acquire the rights to Flash Gordon. As a result, he was forced to create his own space opera and Star Wars was born. James Cameron falls ill while vacation in Italy. It was during one of his fever dreams that he first came up with the image of the T-800 endoskeleton rising up out of the fire-- the central image of what would become The Terminator. At the last minute, Universal asks Bob Gale & Robert Zemeckis to cut an additional $1 million from the Back to the Future budget. Because of these financial constraints, the final sequence of the film, originally involving driving the Delorean into a nuclear test site, was completely reconceived into the lightning-bolt-at-the-clocktower sequence. A sequence so iconic that it would later be reused in both sequels as well. And if we're also counting comic book movies in this: Mission Impossible 2 goes way over schedule. Because of the additional shooting added to the M:I-2 production, Dougray Scott had to drop out of the role of Wolverine in X-Men and had to be replaced by Hugh Jackman. And so long as I'm mentioning casting, it's worth noting that both of Harrison Ford's most iconic movie roles occurred by accident. During the Star Wars auditions, he was just brought in as a placeholder because he happened to be working as a carpenter in the studio's offices at the time. And he only got to be Indiana Jones because of Tom Selleck's Magnum P.I. commitments.
This is the one I think about mostly. While I'm grateful for it, because we got Hugh Jackman and a ton of Wolverine movie and and probably most other Marvel movies. I often wonder what would have happen to Dougray Scott if starred in it. I think he would have been a wonderful Wolverine.
Regarding the original article, I don't see any "accident" in most of these. Someone has an idea, sticks with it, and achieves success. Accident? A teen reads a popular book intended for teens, and decides to write their own book. These kind of things aren't accidents, they are part of who we are. Really, they are examples of entrepreneurs. Calling them "accidents" is assuming that the default state of humanity is to accomplish next to nothing.
Production on the 1970s version of Dune goes tits up, forcing writer Dan O'Bannon to return penniless and sleep on Ron Shuset's couch. Both men later write the first Alien movie.
Yeah I would more likely say 'fortunate events' that pushed people down a certain road that ultimately gave us something awesome.
Jack Lord wants too much money and too much control, so the Great Bird says, 'no" and we get Shatner...
That was not a happy coincidence. According to THE MAKING OF STAR WARS, Fred Roos deliberately hired Ford to hang a door at American Zoetrope in order to "dangle" the actor in front of Lucas. Additional effort was also required as Lucas had already decided not to reuse any actors he had employed in other films. And Lucas had other ideas on Han Solo—he seemed focused on casting a black actor in the role, which is probably why Lando Calrissian turned up later.
Gerry Anderson actually wanted to get into live-action TV but couldn't make the leap, so instead went on to make Supoercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, which shaped a lot of SFTV.
Yeah people magically forget that ford was in american grafitti, the carpenter story is absolute bunk. However there was a lot of luck in Star wars production. Alot of it was Lucas being turned down by the studios of some of his hair brained ideas. It was amazing how bad his original ideas