10 Movies That Were Almost WAY Darker

The Truman Show is a film which so perfectly balances itself on a tonal razor's edge, pivoting from comedy to pathos-laden drama while making many darker implications about its world without actually verbalising them.

Andrew Niccol's original spec script was decidedly less funny, though, mounted as a sci-fi thriller set in New York City and called "The Malcolm Show."

In this version, Truman/Malcolm (Jim Carrey) is a depressed alcoholic trapped in a loveless marriage, who frequents sex workers and becomes increasingly unhinged about the true nature of his reality.

In one scene he even threatens to smash a baby's head in if the mother won't admit to him that he's living in a fake world, and in another he refuses to break up an assault on a woman because he believes it's staged.

The revelation that Truman is indeed in a reality TV show is held back until the third act, and after Truman manages to exit the set by boat - just as in the final film - he has a standoff with show creator Christof (Ed Harris) on the backlot's rooftop.

Ultimately this all changed when director Peter Weir came aboard and had Niccol rework the script into something less dark and more palatable for mainstream audiences, which certainly made it a snugger fit for Carrey's sensibilities.

And the rest, as they say, is history.