Gremlins (found R-rated screenplay of Christmas comedy-horror film; early 1980s)

The film's theatrical poster.

Status: Found

Date found: 17 May 2023

Found by: M acrylic and YoshiKiller2S

Gremlins is an American Christmas comedy-horror film written by Chris Columbus and directed by Joe Dante that was initially released by Warner Bros. in 1984. The film features Zach Galligan as Billy Peltzer, an ordinary young man who receives a bizarre creature known as a mogwai as a pet. The mogwai soon begins to multiply rapidly, with these new mogwai turning into creatures called gremlins, who proceed to wreak havoc on Billy's hometown.

The film was released on June 8th, 1984 to commercial and critical acclaim, grossing $212.9 million on an $11 million budget, and currently holding a 'Certified Fresh' rating of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the film was subject to some controversy upon its release over sequences of violence inappropriate for what was advertised as a PG-rated family film, with it (alongside fellow 1984 release Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) eventually leading the MPAA to instigate the PG-13 rating later that same year. However, the initial screenplay for the film was far more graphic than what was featured in the final film, being written as a straightforward horror film with an intended R-rating.

Initial Screenplay

Chris Columbus wrote the initial screenplay for Gremlins during a time when he was living in a New York City apartment loft with an infestation of mice, which "would scurry by [his] finger if [his] hand was hanging over the bed." Columbus also had a fascination with Universal horror films at this time, and while watching a horror film with a friend one evening, his friend said "You love monster movies so much, why don’t you write a monster movie?." Columbus ran with this idea, and combined it with how creeped out the mouse infestation made him feel to come up with the idea that would become Gremlins.

Columbus initially wrote Gremlins as a straightforward horror picture, featuring a scene in which Billy's mom's head comes rolling down the stairs, and a scene where Billy and his girlfriend Kate enter a McDonald's to find the food untouched but the customers fully devoured. This version of the screenplay eventually made its way into the hands of Steven Spielberg, who was enthusiastic about the idea, calling it "one of the most original things I've come across in many years." However, he had apprehensions about the script's dark and violent nature, encouraging Columbus to rewrite what was done to make the film suitable for a more general audience. Columbus took this advice on board, with him and Spielberg collaborating on several more drafts of the screenplay, eventually resulting in the film we know today.

Availability

For many years, the R-rated version of the Gremlins screenplay was not publicly available, with the only description of its contents coming from a 2020 Collider interview with Columbus in which it was discussed. However, an R-rated draft of the screenplay dated April 27th, 1982 would be made widely available by Lost Media Wiki users M acrylic and YoshiKiller2S. Apparently, YoshiKiller had the screenplay in his collection for around a year, assuming it was one of the PG drafts until Acrylic notified him of the screenplay's contents on May 17th, 2023.

See Also

• Gremlins (lost pilot episode of cancelled animated series; 1980s)
• Gremlins (lost build of cancelled Atari arcade movie tie-in game; 1984)
• Gremlins (lost build of cancelled PlayStation 2/GameCube movie tie-in game; early 2000s)

External Links

• The full screenplay.
• Wikipedia page for Gremlins.