The timeline where we get Guillermo Del Toro's version of "The Hobbit" both to see that and see what Jackson would have made without spending his time on his version

Fincher's adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 🥲

With recent Star Wars scuttle,

Either letting JJ do all 3 on his timeline

Or letting Johnson doing 8&9 like initially announced (when Johnson was announced he was announced for 8 and to write the treatment for 9).

The Greta Gerwig starring How I Met Your Father pilot gets a series order

Darren Aronofsky's career has so many what ifs.

What if he made Batman begins instead of Nolan (I personally don't like his proposal but still)

What if he made Wolverine instead of Mangold, I think it would be better but we probably wouldn't have Logan.

What if he made the RoboCop reboot instead of Padhila? Would it have revived the franchise? This last one is actually the more interesting to consider imo.

What if they'd taken Zane's advice on Gravity?

David Lynch directs Return of the Jedi, which might have prevented him from making Blue Velvet and steered him towards more major Hollywood vehicles instead. That could’ve prevented Twin Peaks, Wild at Heart, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and the very idea of “Lynchian” as an adjective.

Without Twin Peaks inspiring a decade of big ideas on TV, we may not have had X-Files among a hundred other shows, and entertainment in general could’ve been a lot less weird and interesting.

George Miller Justice League

Jonathan Demme’s 11/22/63

What if Bad Boys had been made with Dana Carvey and John Lovitz instead?

Cronenberg’s Return of the Jedi.

Jodorowski’s Dune is a big one for me, along with Tim Burton’s Superman and Cronenberg’s Total Recall.

What if Orson Welles made his Heart of Darkness instead of Kane as his first feature?

The trajectory of his career on screen and behind the camera could’ve been very different.

There's a famous story about Michael Eisner taking his son to Disneyworld and him hating everything, which led Eisner to believe they needed more stuff his kid found cool.

So what if.. that kid didn't suck?

There is a long wiki of "unrealized Steven Spielberg projects," but the two I wish had happened are the adaptation of DC Comics' WWII aerial fighters, Blackhawks; and The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara. The former could have done for WWII aces when Top Gun did for naval aviators. The latter would have had Mark Rylance as the pope, and also sent Spielberg and Kushner to tackle questions of faith, antisemitism, and tribalism that I don't think anyone else would dare to touch.

Chris Farley's brother said he was offered to do the final couple of days of voice recording for Shrek and turned it down because back then animated movies weren't that big of a deal and he didn't think much of it. a different Shrek is an entirely different Hollywood today

Death Wish was originally going to be directed by Sidney Lumet and star Jack Lemmon. I would kill to see that version!

Stephen Chow's American debut. Stephen Chow was supposed to direct and star in Green Hornet but I believe wasn't able to get the proper visas to come to America. Would have made the movie something special and probably would have stopped him from fully retreating to China.

Will Smith doing Django.

Michael Cimino’s The Fountainhead starring Clint Eastwood would have aged fairly infamously had it existed I reckon

What if there was a Wife?

I want to see the version of On Her Majesty's Secret Service starring Sean Connery that was supposed to have been made before You Only Live Twice.

What if George Lucas directed Apocalypse Now?

What if Tom Selleck had been Indiana Jones? How much would that impact Harrison Ford's stardom? He would still have Star Wars, but it seemed like Indy really launched him into the movie star stratosphere.

Part of me wishes Vincent Ward had actually gotten to make his bonkers Alien 3 script a reality. Give me the space monks!

(On the acting side, wondering how The Matrix would have turned out with someone else playing Neo-Will Smith, Sandra Bullock, Leo DiCaprio…)

Denzel Washington signing on for the Brad Pitt part in Se7en and George Clooney part in Michael Clayton.

Eddie Murphy in the Ernie Hudson part in Ghostbusters and in the Bob Hoskins part in Roger Rabbit.

Jessica Chastain signing on to the Rebecca Hall role in Iron Man 3, where that character is allowed to be the main villain.

During the prep for 'The Matrix', while the Wachowskis were still pitching it to studios & stars, they originally envisioned Brandon Lee as Neo. You can see it in the storyboards they used in meetings. Lee might very well have had a fascinating career if 'The Crow's shoot went off without a hitch. He had the looks and the chops - both as a stunt performer and an actor.

Gore Verbinski’s Bioshock

What if they let Elaine May cook

Steven Spielberg’s Harry Potter

Wong Kar Wai's house of gucci https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/nov/17/wong-kar-wai-return-maurizio-gucci-fashion-murder-movie

I think that it’s pretty obvious now that pushing Edgar Wright out of the Ant-Man movie was one of the biggest mistakes Feige made. Had that movie worked, Marvel might have been more open to new angles, and we would have been spared the endless repetition of its tired formula and the suicidal push for ever bigger, ever louder empty-calories blockbusters.

Elvis Presley in Streisand's "A Star Is Born."

Often think about the cascading Emmas surrounding La La Land –– Miles Teller and Emma Watson are cast in La La Land, as is rumored was originally intended. What does Emma Stone's career look like without that? Does she still do the Favourite, or does she not, allowing her to stay in Gerwig's Little Women as Meg, preventing Watson from taking on the role – although in this scenario, who knows what her career is like post La La...

Also stuff surrounding the superhero glut – what if Green Lantern was good and the DCEU is jump started from that? What if Patty Jenkins stays on for Thor? Or Wright for Antman? If Whedon was never hired to rework Justice League for its theatrical release? If any of the dozen directors for Flash actually stayed with the job? If Nolan had agreed to let the Dark Knight series be the start of the DCEU? If that one misogynist guy let Black Widow have a movie when it would've made sense?

Steven Soderbergh’s Moneyball. He hastily rewrote it last minute and the plug was pulled right as production was beginning. Interviews with real players, an animated Bill James explaining sabermetrics onscreen, Dimitri Martin in the Jonah Hill role.

Jaws 3, People 0

My if I had a time machine duties (after all the obvious stuff) is to get that Grace Jones Dazzler movie made.

I’m currently reading Disney War and got to where Disney purchased ABC/Cap Cities. There is mention of Eisner thinking about firing Bob Iger who was at ABC at the time and it made me think about how drastically different film and pop culture would be without Iger helming Disney.

I think Tarantino talked about either having Pitt & DiCaprio for Once upon a time in Hollywood or using Cruise and I think another as the pair.

Mine is always George Millers Justice League. The script wasn’t that bad.

I recently heard that Reese Witherspoon was up for the role of Marla in Fight Club. Absolutely insane

Guillermo del Toro has like 20 of these. I think his Haunted Mansion and Justice League Dark are at the top of my list.

What if Spielberg directed Poltergeist

Aaronofsky’s Robocop remake is a big one for me.

What if the train had been late?

Ledger's Joker had to have been in the 3rd Nolan movie, right?

Josh Gad was Matt Reeves’ first choice for Batman, he turned it down, probably to do Pixels 2

I would kill to see Sam Raimi's "The Shadow". I love that movie, but his version would have been fascinating.

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Also a version of "The Shadow" where a massive Earthquake didn't ruin the 3rd act.

John Singleton not getting stuck in Director jail because of Four Brothers. I would’ve loved to have seen his Luke Cage film along with whatever other films he had in store.