This '80s Sci-Fi Flop Was Pitched As A Michael J. Fox And Arnold Schwarzenegger Team-Up

Hollywood was gaga for action-heavy buddy comedies in the 1980s. The mayhem-laden subgenre was hardly new (Alan Alda and James Caan laid waste to much of San Francisco in Richard Rush's 1974 disasterpiece "Freebie and the Bean"), but when Walter Hill made a box office killing with the Nick Nolte-Eddie Murphy vehicle "48 Hrs.," studios were determined to mine the formula for all it was worth.

Key to the success of these movies was pairing a funny guy with a straight man. I mean, that's just Comedy 101. But the more absurd the mismatch, the buzzier the project. A classic example of this was Arnold Schwarzenegger being paired with Danny Devito in Ivan Reitman's box office hit "Twins" (which, to be clear, is far from a classic motion picture). Schwarzenegger was especially game for these shenanigans, as he also teamed up with a wise-cracking James Belushi in Hill's "Red Heat." So, it's not a surprise that the Austrian Oak was courted for a buddy flick that would've paired him with Michael J. Fox. Thank god this never came to pass — although Warner Bros. may disagree.

When Joe Dante's "Innerspace" debuted theatrically on July 1, 1987, it was expected to be one of the season's biggest hits. It was Dante's follow-up to "Gremlins," and had "Steven Spielberg presents" emblazoned on its poster. Reviews were largely positive, but the marketing was rough. Its poster, featuring a miniaturized pod held between fingertips, told folks very little about the movie, while its trailer was an uncomfortable hard sell that went heavy on Spielberg's involvement. Ultimately, it flopped (something Dante has a theory about). 

It's possible A-listers like Schwarzenegger and Fox would've given WB a splashier opening. I just have a hard time believing it could've been a better film. Because "Innerspace" is perfect.

"Innerspace" began life as a serious sci-fi spec script by Chip Proser, who admitted that it was "a rip-off of 'Fantastic Voyage'" where the patient was walking around with a miniaturized pod floating about in his body. Joe Dante turned this version down.

The script needed work, and screenwriter Jeffrey Boam wasn't sure he wanted any part of it. In an interview published by EON Magazine in 2000 (a month after the screenwriter died from a rare lung disease), Boam said, "The idea was kind of ridiculous, which was a person miniaturized and put into someone else's body. That's all I kept from the original script. They originally thought it might be Michael J. Fox inside Arnold Schwarzenegger's body. I actually kept turning it down, and they were persistent and kept coming back to me."

Finally, he gave in and wrote the version of "Innerspace" he'd like to see. This did the trick. Per Boam:

"It was such a goofy idea that there were no limits to it. I felt I could do anything, and so the script I wrote was very loony and far out there, but everybody loved it. Dick Donner, Joe Dante, John Carpenter, and even Steven Spielberg wanted to do it. So, when Steven wanted to do it, Warners thought I was a God and any amount of money it would take to do the movie they would spend. Steve ultimately decided he only wanted to produce, so Joe came along and really latched on to the idea."

Dante wisely swapped Schwarzenegger and Fox for Dennis Quaid (as cocksure test pilot Tuck Pendleton) and Martin Short (as hypochondriac grocery store cashier Jack Putter), and wound up with a deliriously funny and thrilling summer spectacle. "Innerspace" deserved much better.