The 7 craziest movie ideas that somehow actually worked

Disney

Make no mistake, in modern Hollywood there is no such thing as an idea that’s too crazy. There is simply too much money on the line for any idea to be dismissed out of hand, except possibly a Black Widow movie, for some reason. This is why abominations like the "Battleship" movie exist. This weekend, another idea, an animated family movie based on a smartphone game about shooting birds out of a slingshot, will become the latest film to have moviegoers wondering how such a wild idea made it to the screen. The reason is that it wouldn’t be the first time a wild idea became a fantastic movie (or, at the very least, a fantastically successful movie). Here are 7 times that the craziest of ideas paid off in Hollywood. Which ones did we forget?

Idea No. 1: Let's make an action franchise out of a theme park ride

Disney built most of its theme park success on their films, which were all based on animated movies. We should have guessed it would only be a matter of time before they flipped the script, and made a movie based on one of their original theme park ideas. The crazy part was, it worked. "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl" was a fun and exciting adventure that took elements from the classic ride and used them as the basis for a great story. A great cast helped build an original adventure. It may have only been a great idea once, however.

Bonus Crazy Idea: Depp deciding to play his role like he’s a drunk Keith Richards.

Idea No. 2: Let's update everything around the Brady Bunch, but keep them exactly the same

Television series are one of those evergreen ideas that will perpetually be made into movies. Most of them fail. The insane humans who took on the herculean task of making a movie out of "The Brady Bunch" had a couple of major issues. Simply making a comedy version of the original show would be too easy, as the 70s were a fairly ridiculous decade to begin with. (Have you even seen the pants?) However, if you modernize the story, you lose everything that made "The Brady Bunch" what we loved. The solution? Modernize everything, except them. The juxtaposition of the two time periods is what we were all going to be laughing at anyway, so just make the movie about that. And it really, really worked.

Idea No. 3: Let's create a superhero franchise around the fat guy grom 'Parks & Rec'

Today you can’t swing a dead cat at an action franchise without hitting a rumor that Chris Pratt is going to be part of it. It’s a remarkable turnaround, considering prior to his turn in James Gunn’s "Guardians of the Galaxy," he was the chubby dude on TV’s "Parks & Recreation." Casting Pratt as Peter Quill made some sense. Comedy was a key part of the film, and so you need somebody who can deliver it, but first and foremost it’s a Marvel movie. Quill may not have superpowers, but he’s a comic book hero nonetheless. It was the ensemble which made the movie something special, even by Marvel standards, but Pratt played his part.

Bonus Crazy Idea: These Marvel movies are crazy popular, let’s make one based on a comic that even the fans have never read. And one with a tree and a raccoon as major characters.