The Script Rewrites on The Original SUPER MARIO BROS. Movie Caused Complete Chaos
Some people love the original 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie, some people hate it. Regardless of what you think about that movie, the behind-the-scenes production was complete and utter chaos. There are so many crazy behind-the-scenes stories that I want to tell, but in this article, I’m going to focus on the script.
In a recent interview with Variety, co-director Rocky Morton talked about the script, saying: “Two weeks before the first day of principal photography, the script was rewritten completely. The producers forbade me to talk to the writer. But I called him up one night because I was building all these incredible sets and monsters and prosthetics. And I said, ‘You need to know what I’m building and what to keep in the script, because we spent all this money on this stuff already.’ When the producers found out I did this call, they went absolutely ballistic at me — they ripped into me. And it scared me.”
Morton continued, saying: “Of course, the actors all signed up on our original script, and when the new script came in, Annabel and I had to justify the new script. We had to pretend that it was great and convince the actors to go along with it.”
Well, the actors were not happy at all with all of the rewrites that were being done. In 1992, The Los Angeles Times went to the set of the film and what they found was a complete nightmare. The report explained: “In trailers squatting on the swampy ground, the day’s script changes are being tossed, unread, into drawers. Why bother to read the latest rewrites? sigh Hopper and co-star Bob Hoskins.”
When talking to Dennis Hopper, who played King Koopa, about the film, he was informed of the directors’ decision not to talk to the press about their work, and he responded, saying: “The directors won’t give interviews? That’s the smartest thing I’ve heard from them. That’s the only intelligent thing I’ve heard that they’ve really actually done.”
Damn, he was not holding back on his real feelings at all! While he’s in the trailer with the press, Hopper is brought the latest rewrites, and when they came, he said: “I suspect it will probably be rewritten. The script had probably been rewritten five or six times by the time I arrived here. I don’t really bother with it anymore. I just go in and do it scene by scene. I figure it’s not going to hurt my character.”
Hoskins, who had been waiting all morning for the directors to be ready to shoot, added: “All these rewrites get frustrating so I don’t do too much research. The trick is: Don’t take the job too seriously, turn up and do your day’s work. That’s all.”
When new script pages come to John Leguizamo, who played Luigi, he said at the time: “New pages. Every day’s a new page. It’s like waiting for the news. What the hell happened yesterday? And there it is: All new, all live. 24 hours: Ding, ding, ding.”
As you can see, the actors seemed to just accept the hell that they had found themselves in with all of the rewrites, and they were just rolling with it and getting paid. However, co-producer Fred Caruso, who previously worked on The Godfather and The Bonfire of the Vanities, believed that this was normal. He said: “It’s not unusual to go through many script changes and especially with this particular film because this comes from a video game that has no story. Everything we’re doing is made up and it comes from the flow of what we’re shooting. All the games have are the characters.”
How the hell did this guy become a movie producer!? That’s not how making movies should work! It’s such an unorganized, messy, expensive, and time-wasting way to do things! It’s so frustrating that Hollywood continues to be run by these knuckleheads.
The report went on to say: “The directors are improvising the story as they inch along--and entering the eighth week of a 12-week shoot that ultimately went three weeks longer. At least nine writers have worked on the script--now grown as thick as nearby Wilmington’s phone book, rainbow-colored with rewritten pages. The only page color missing is the original draft’s. No white pages remain.”
Fiona Shaw, who plays Koopa’s queen, said the first script she got was “witty,” but nothing from that witty script made it into the final movie. That’s a shame.