You might want to smash your head on the wall after learning about all the journeys that led to Waterworld’s creation, a tale rich with sorts of twists and turns. The tumultuous trip of the film’s high seas production is storied, but with the tense involvement of two Kevins—director Kevin Reynolds and lead Kevin Costner—the astronomical costs and the perilous sets, are not as often recounted as its origin story.
The production of Waterworld was just drawn out; the script was initially penned by Peter Rader in the 1980s. Around this period, a number of tales served as inspiration for the movie, including those of Mad Max. The film had already been rewritten multiple times by the time Reynolds and Costner were attached.
Long story short, this screenplay could have easily served as a low-budget & highly appreciated tribute to the Mad Max saga, but it evolved into the 1995 epic, brimming with surreal charms and not-so-expected box office revenue.
The Origins of Kevin Costner’s Waterworld: From Low-Budget Mad Max Rip-Off to Blockbuster Epic
The tale of Waterworld’s production is a Hollywood legend—a notorious creation fraught with challenges and setbacks. But what many people don’t know is that the film could have been very different altogether. In a rare interview from the ’90s edition of Starlog (via Den of Geek), screenwriter Peter Rader revealed the haunting yet fascinating origin story of this post-apocalyptic epic.
Back in the mid-80s, Rader was a young filmmaker looking to break into the industry. Inspired by a meeting with Roger Corman, Rader began to develop a Mad Max rip-off set in a waterlogged future. In a sea of low-budget post-apocalyptic clones, Rader’s idea stood out for its unique setting.
Despite a lukewarm reception from Corman’s company, Rader forged ahead and penned a screenplay that would later become the basis for Waterworld. His early draft was filled with eccentric characters and surreal elements, including a villain named Neptune who sat on a “clamshell throne” and a protagonist who kept a “white horse hidden on his boat”. In his words:
There were all sorts of very odd, funny touches like that. There were also some very surreal elements. One of the things that made the Mariner [originally called Noah] unique in my script was that he originally had a white horse on his boat, which was a river barge at that point. It was surreal – he wouldn’t show anyone the horse, he would always hide it.
Rader’s script caught the attention of producers Andy Licht and Jeff Mueller, who envisioned Waterworld as a “spaghetti western on water”. They planned to shoot the film on a relatively modest budget in a water tank in Malta, with the grand finale taking place aboard a supertanker. Radar shared:
The super-tanker in the movie was always the great set piece of the film. The final battle is over this gigantic super-tanker, and the super-tanker was in all of the drafts, and it was the culmination of everything.
However, their vision was soon derailed when Hollywood heavyweights Kevin Costner, Kevin Reynolds, and Universal Studios came calling.
Behind the Scenes: The True Reasons Waterworld Sank
But have you ever wondered what really sank the original vision of Waterworld?
The demise of the previous Waterworld iteration was ultimately caused by the intense interest of some much larger Hollywood names: Kevin Costner and Kevin Reynolds. Andy Licht and Jeff Mueller were forced to relinquish control of the project, and Peter Rader was replaced by David Twohy as the script underwent extensive revisions.
From a pirate leader named “Neptun” who sat on a clamshell throne to the Mariner having a hidden horse on his boat, the film was brimming with whimsical touches that ultimately ended up on the cutting room floor. Rader explained (via Den of Geek):
In my original draft, there were a lot of capricious and cartoonish elements. For instance, my pirate leader actually called himself Neptune, and he had a trident and sat in a clamshell throne. There were all sorts of very odd, funny touches like that. There were also some very surreal elements.
As Reynolds and Costner took the reins, they made the decision to streamline the film into a more traditional tentpole summer movie, stripping away many of the lighter elements in Rader’s original script. The latter added:
They decided it would be too much of a headache to have all those animals around. They took out almost all of those lighter elements.
The rest, as they say, is history. Waterworld went on to become a big-budget blockbuster with a troubled production history that became the stuff of Hollywood legend. Despite not living up to its budget, it ended up becoming one of the highest-grossing films of 1995 (via Box Office Mojo)
Without question, if Kevin Costner had not pilfered the original idea with some edits, he could have made his own Mad Max.
Waterworld can be rented on Apple TV.
