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Failure: The Blog  

August 2018

  • When This Executive Was Fired, He Took Charge
  • Obeying The Speed Limit Has Never Been More Fun
  • London Black Cabs Helped Uber Grow
  • Bette Graham Created A Product To Fix Her Mistakes
  • Flamin' Hot Cheetos Had An Interesting Start

July 2018

  • Fear This Instead Of Failure
  • Re-Releasing Songs Created Success
  • A CEO's Purposeful Mistake
  • The Tardy Student And The Unsolvable Problem
  • Fixing Potholes Through Graffiti

June 2018

  • A Surprising Mistake In The Oxford English Dictionary
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  • Blocking A Hymn
  • Eddie Shore Was Truly A Tough Guy
  • [Video] Elon Musk Didn't "Pivot" He Failed

May 2018

  • 8 Examples of Mental Toughness Part 2
  • Necessity Turned Accessory: Allen Iverson's Sleeve
  • This Doctor Has Continued To Fail
  • 8 Examples of Mental Toughness
  • MIT Accidentally Creates New Smelting Process

April 2018

  • Johnny Cash Quit Singing Lessons
  • Cruise Control Came Out of Frustration
  • Time Spent Gaming Pays Off In The Navy
  • Rock Around The Clock Was a Commercial Failure
  • Sigmund Freud Should Have Been Discouraged

March 2018

  • Superman Couldn't Fly
  • This School Shares Failures
  • Jim Croce's Parents Hoped He Would Fail

[More archives...]

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The Running Joke That Became a Movie

November 10th, 2014 - by Alyssa Shea

The movie, Predator, was a massive hit. You wouldn’t think that it all started because of a joke!

Following the success of the last installment of the Rocky movies, a jape was running rampant in Hollywood. People were saying that since Rocky Balboa has succeeded in battling against every earthly rival, he would have to take up combat against an alien if they wanted a fifth installment of the series. And the screenwriters took it seriously.

Jim and John Thomas wrote the script for Predator in 1985, which was originally entitled Hunter, and handed it over to 20th Century Fox and producer Joel Silver. Silver and Gordon immediately approached Arnold Schwarzenegger for the lead role, who didn’t exactly take to the idea at first.

Predator failure
Photo © Flickr User Gage Skidmore

“Predator was one of the scripts I read, and it bothered me in one way. It was just me and the alien. So we re-did the whole thing so that it was a team of commandos and then I liked the idea. I thought it would make a much more effective movie and be much more believable. I liked the idea of starting out with an action-adventure, but then coming in with some horror and science fiction.”

Who could have known that Predator would become so huge, becoming its own trilogy with two crossover movies under its belt, and garnering a near cult-like following by die-hard fans? The reality is that this entire series stemmed from a jest, which could have turned into a huge failure. But this failed joke became a success!

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