40 Sources of Inspiration for Major Movies and TV Shows

So that’s how they got that idea!
40 Sources of Inspiration for Major Movies and TV Shows

While we’re watching a great movie or TV show, it’s rare that we ask ourselves where they got their ideas from. If their inspirations were that on the nose, we might be witnessing a little plagiarism. Not to mention, questions about inspiration are usually reserved for the plethora of entertainment news reporters who ask them on the press tour. 

Thankfully, these creators gave some pretty great answers!

Aladdin

Pop culture inspirations A Whole New World John Musker, co-director of Aladdin, revealed that the iconic song was inspired by Richard Donner's 1978 film SUPERMAN, where Christopher Reeve takes Margot Kidder's Lois Lane on a dream date. CRACKED

E.T.

Pop culture inspirations E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Steven Spielberg's childhood experiences and filming the climactic scene of Close Encounters of the Third Kind inspired him to incorporate a divorce theme into E.T., which explores a family trying to fill a big void after a divorce. CRACKED

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Pop culture inspirations Everything Everywhere All at Once Stephanie Hsu drew inspiration ة P from JIM CARREY and JOAQUIN i s PHOENIX's performances as ? ? The Riddler and The Joker for is C her role in the sci-fi epic. ? a د. 6 CRACKED is

The Exorcist

Pop culture inspirations The Exorcist René Magritte's series THE EMPIRE OF LIGHTS explores mind-bending oxymorons, and William Friedkin recreated this work for the movie, capturing the disharmonious spiritual aura that surrounds the home. CRACKED

The Shining

Pop culture inspirations The Shining Stanley Kubrick was inspired by A DIANE ARBUS PHOTOGRAPH to cast the Grady sisters as twins. The original book by Stephen King does not feature twins. CRACKED

Wednesday

Pop culture inspirations Wednesday Jenna Ortega choreographed the iconic dance scene taking inspiration from SIOUXSIE SIOUX, BOB FOSSE, LISA LORING, LENE LOVICH, DENIS LAVANT, and archival footage of goths dancing in clubs in the '80s. CRACKED

House of the Dragon

Pop culture inspirations House of the Dragon Director Greg Yaitanes watched HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON to prepare for the dragon fight inthe Season 1 finale. Не took inspiration from the film's cinematography for the scene. CRACKED

Cookie Monster

Cookie Monster was created for an ad for Munchos potato chips. ncho In the ad, he ate up a whole bag of the chips, to the slogan of There's more to a Muncho! Later, he made his way to Sesame Street and found a love of cookies rather than chips. CRACKED.COM

Peanuts

Charles Schulz created Franklin because of a fan letter. In 1968, former teacher Harriet Glickman, wrote to Schulz and suggested he add a Black character to Peanuts as a small of way of helping change those conditions in our society which led to the assassination of MLK and which contribute to the vast sea of misunderstanding, fear, hate, and violence. After more correspondence, Schulz agreed, and came up with Franklin. CRACKED.COM

Star Trek

Geordi LaForge was based on a disabled Star Trek superfan. His name was George LaForge, he'd suffered from muscular dystrophy, and he showed up all the time at fan conventions. Не made friends with Gene Roddenberry, and Roddenberry remembered him when he was creating characters for The Next Generation. CRACKED.COM

Scooby-Doo

The Scooby Gang was based on the characters in a 1960s TV show. It was called The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, and it was a teen sitcom that the creators of Scooby-Doo basically just lifted the main characters from. CRACKED.COM

The Good Place

Judge Gen in The Good Place was modelled on none other than The Notorious RBG. Her robe was based on that on Ruth Bader Ginsberg - her actress, Maya Rudolph, said it was an homage to an iconic human being. CRACKED.COM

Thor: Ragnarok

Korg from Thor: Ragnarok is based on Polynesian bouncers in New Zealand. Director Taika Waititi met lots of nightclub bouncers who were big and burly, but had super-soft voices - that was the inspiration for Korg. CRACKED.COM

Madea

Tyler Perry's Madea is basically a mashup of two people: his mom and his aunt. As he himself describes it: My mother is the wisdom of Madea, but my aunt Mayola, that's her wig, that's her voice, that's her gun in the purse. CRACKED.COM

Sonny Corleone

The inspiration for James Caan's character in The Godfather was Don Rickles. Speaking about it, Caan later said: I was thinking of my friend, Don Rickles. I told everybody, you know, and I started laughing like Don Rickles. CRACKED.COM

Don’t Look Up

JONAH HILL DON'T LOOK UP CRACKED.COM Jonah said the inspiration behind his character, Jason Orlean, in Don't Look Up was What if Fyre festival was a person, and that person had power in the White House? Maybe we should ask Ja-Rule.

Vice

CHRISTIAN BALE VICE CRACKED.COM Bale won the Golden Globe for his portrayal of former V.P. Dick Cheney in Vice. In his acceptance speech, he said, Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration on how to play this role.

Captain Jack Sparrow

JOHNNY DEPP CPT. JACK SPARROW CRACKED.COM In Pirates of the Caribbean, Jack's quirky mannerisms and voice were inspired by Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. So much so that Richards was brought on to play Jack Sparrow's father in the 3rd installment.

Forrest Gump

TOM HANKS FORREST GUMP CRACKED.COM Brotherly Inspiration. Just before Forrest Gump, Tom's brother Jim Hanks starred in the obscure B-movie Buford's Beach Bunnies. His similar hairstyle, politeness around women, and key mannerisms bear clear resemblance to Forrest's.

Wonder Woman

GAL GADOT WONDER WOMAN CRACKED.COM Diana Prince has some Princess Diana in her. In an interview, she said her performance as Wonder Woman was inspired in part by the late Princess Diana. I remember a documentary about her. They say that she was full of compassion, and she cared for the people. I was like ding, ding, ding.

Saw

SAW happened because the writer went to the hospital with a severe migraine, thinking he was dying. Writer Leigh Whannell got the idea for the character of John Kramer (Jigsaw) when he was 24 and mistook his migraines for a possible brain tumor. While at the hospital undergoing an MRI and other tests, he came up with the idea of a psychopath who was told he was going to die of a terminal illness, and then decided to put his bad juju onto other people. CRACKED COM

You Don’t Mess with the Zohan

ZOHAN really exists, and his name is NEZI ARBIB. Arbib and his brothers (all of them former Israeli soldiers) run a hair salon in Los Angeles. Adam Sandler spent some time with them preparing for the movie. CRACKED.COM

Nacho Libre

Sergio Gutierrez Benitez was a Mexican priest who fought as mysterious masked wrestler Fray Tormenta, then used his winnings to buy food for orphans. When Jack Black played him, he was called NACHO LIBRE. CRACKED.COM

Inception

Tom Hardy likes to think he played Christopher Nolan in Inception. CRACKED.COM Не tried to imitate the director's mannerisms for his character Eames.

Black Panther

Steven Spielberg's Lincoln influenced Black Panther. The challenge scene with M'Baku and T'Challa was directly inspired by it -- Ryan Coogler says he liked how Spielberg made political conversations animated and engaging. CRACKED.COM

Lord of the Rings

CRACKED.COM The Ents in THE LORD OF THE RINGS were inspired by Shakespeare. No, there aren't talking, walking trees in Macbeth - and that pissed off a young J. R. R. Tolkien, who expected that the prophecy about the woods coming against Macbeth's castle became literally true. So years later, he wrote that into his own book.

The Purge

CRACKED.COM Movie: The Purge Inspiration: A drunk driver (and a vengeful wife) Director James DeMonaco tells the story of the time a drunk driver almost killed him and his wife by cutting them off on the road. They confronted the driver, but he showed no remorse. My wife was so worked up over this guy's attitude... and said, 'Wouldn't it be great if we all had one free one a year?' I'm like, 'That's so fucked-up, honey,' but it stayed with me. Now there's your movie.

South Park

South Park's Kenny was based on a Kenny from Trey Parker's childhood, who also wore an orange coat and always mumbled. Не went missing all the time, and other kids would be like, What happened to Kenny? Is he dead? CRACKED.COM

The Good Place

The Good Place is heavily based on a 1944 existentialist play by Sartre. His No Exit is about three people who can't stand each other trapped in the afterlife together, with nothing to do but to talk to each other forever. CRACKED.COM

BoJack Horseman

Raphael Bob-Waksberg based BoJack Horseman on how he felt after moving to Hollywood. Не felt isolated and alienated because he didn't go out too much, and that dichotomy of being simultaneously on top of the world, and also never more alone, was really the beginning of thinking about this character of BoJack. CRACKED.COM

Birds of Prey

Quentin Tarantino's movies kind of ended up inspiring Birds of Prey. a Director Cathy Yan said that the structure of the film was a bit like Pulp Fiction meets Rashomon. CRACKED.COM

Star Wars

COMMANDER CODY, MEET COMMANDO CODY. You were probably puzzled by the fact that there's a random clone trooper called Cody in Revenge of the Sith. Не is a tribute to Commando Cody --a hero from 1950s science fiction serials. CRACKED.COM

Heat

The iconic Robert De Niro shot in Heat was inspired by a 1967 painting. To director Michael Mann, the painting showed somebody who was involved in some life of aggression and action and yet contrast within the mental state because here was a moment of inner loneliness, so he basically made it a shot. CRACKED.COM

101 Dalmations

101 Dalmatians was inspired by a real-life Cruella de Vil-type remark. Disney 101 DALMATIANS Writer Dodie Smith had nine Dalmatians, and a friend of hers once said Those dogs would make a lovely fur coat --which ended up inspiring a novel (that later turned into a movie). CRACKED.COM

Tropic Thunder

BEN STILLER TROPIC THUNDER CRACKED.COM After Stiller's bit part in Speilberg's Empire of the Sun he said, The actors were going to fake boot camp, and talking about these incredible experiences that really changed their lives. It was funny because people who actually went to war (or actual boot camp) would have actual transformative experiences.

American Psycho

CHRISTIAN BALE AMERICAN PSYCHO CRACKED.COM Director Mary Harron said, We talked about how Martian-like Patrick Bateman was, how he looked at the world like somebody from another planet. So after watching a Letterman interview with Tom Cruise, Bale told her, Cruise had this intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes. I was really taken with his energy.'

Hannibal Lecter

ANTHONY HOPKINS BE HANNIBAL LECTOR CRACKED.COM Hopkins says that his character has a deliberately feline quality. I got to move around a lot, and I sort of modeled my walk on a cat's. I like cats, and I love the way they pad around. I wanted to get that feel when Lecter is padding very quietly and stealthily in the shadows.

The Joker

HEATH LEDGER THE JOKER CRACKED.COM Some influences for Heath Ledger's Joker were A Clockwork Orange, Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious, and ventriloquist dummies. Не also said, I locked myself away in a hotel room in London for a month, and landed more in the realm of a psychopath

The Devil Wears Prada

MERYL STREEP THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA CRACKED.COM Streep got aspects of Miranda Priestly from Clint Eastwood. She told Vogue, The voice I got from Clint Eastwood. Не never, ever raises his voice, and everyone has to lean in to listen, and he is automatically the most powerful person in the room.

Family Guy

SETH MACFARLANE QUAGMIRE GRACKED.COM My father used to buy me old radio dramas, and commercials from the '40s and '50s had this high-pitched voice. So Quagmire's a 50's radio jockey on coke combined with a sex-crazed pervert. Giggity.

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