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15 Strange Inspirations For Iconic Pop Culture Works

Sometimes, inspiration strikes on the tour bus.

15 Strange Inspirations For Iconic Pop Culture Works

April 28, 2021

Turns out, we wouldn’t have had a classic comedy movie if it wasn’t for a random tour bus conversation. Here’s the full story, plus 14 others:

15

A Stan Lee cameo was inspired by fan theories. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, it's heavily implied Stan was connected of The Watchers, and James Gunn confirmed that idea sprang from fan theories about who Stan was in the MCU. — Source: CinemBlend

14

2019's Joker was partly inspired by 1936's Modern Times. Director Todd Phillips said, I think you'd have to watch 'Modern Times' because we believe there is some Chaplin in Arthur that I think is really important. CRACKED.COM — Source: FilmSchoolRejects

13

A random conversation on Eddie Murphy's tour bus inspired Coming to America. UVpk Murphy had just broken up with his girlfriend, and he talked about how he'd like to find someone who didn't know he was famous and who'd like him for who he was. CRACKED.COM — Source: New York Times

12

Peter Pan was inspired by the writer's brother's death. David Barrie died in a skating accident just before he turned 19, and that gave his kid brother James the seed of an idea about a character who'd remain a boy forever- and 33 years later, he wrote Peter Pan. CRACKED.COM — Source: New York Times

11

A real-life whaling disaster inspired Moby Dick. MOBY DICK It was the sinking of a ship called the Essex, and Melville read about it in the Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex. That gave Melville the idea for the end of Moby Dick, in — Source: New York Times

10

Bambi

The look of Bambi was inspired by Song dynasty artwork. An early Bambi sketch Chinese-American Disney artist Tyrus Wong drew on 11th-century art from the Song dynasty to create the backgrounds for the movie. — Source: VOA

9

007

Canadian spy Sir William Stephenson inspired James Bond. Bond creator lan Fleming met Stephenson at Camp X, an Ontario espionage school- they became friends, and eventually even bought real estate in Jamaica together. — Source: GlobalNews

8

Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues wasn't inspired by any kind of real experience: Recorded Prison 4-44513 JOHNNY CASH FOLSOM PRISON BUUES THE FOLK SINGER Cash got the idea from the Hollywood movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison. — Source: TPR

7

Red Dead Redemption

19th-century artists inspired Red Dead Redemption 2. In The Mountains, Albert Bierstadt The game's lighting director, Owen Shepherd, looked to the pastoral and landscape painters like Turner, Rembrandt and American landscape painters from the 19th century such as Albert Bierstadt, Frank Johnson, and Charles Russell. — Source: Polygon

6

Nazi Germany led to the creation of Superman. Co-creator Jerry Siegel says he came up with Superman in the early '30s after hearing and reading of the oppression and slaughter of helpless, oppressed Jews in Nazi Germany... seeing movies depicting the horrors of privation suffered by the downtrodden. — Source: The Independent

5

Dungeons & Dragons

Cheap, plastic toys from Hong Kong led to D&D monsters. DUNGEONS IDRAGONS MONSTER MANUAL Gary Gygax based some of the creatures in D&D's Monster Manual on the toys he found in a Prehistoric Animals pack (some kind of looked like dinosaurs, some didn't look like much of anything). CRACKED.COM — Source: io9

4

WWI led to the creation of Doctor Dolittle. Writer Hugh Lofting was appalled by the deaths of the horses in the war, and eventually started writing stories about animals working with each other c- eventually, he introduced a doctor that could talk to them. — Source: New England Historical Society

3

Godzilla

An American B-movie inspired Godzilla. The movie was The Beast from 000 Fathoms, about an ancient dinosaur awoken by a nuclear explosion who heads towards New York City- Japanese producer Tomoyuki Tanaka just mashed that up with then-current hydrogen bomb testing in the Bikini Atoll, creating Godzilla. — Source: FilmSchoolRejects

2

John Lennon and Yoko Ono's album Double Fantasy was inspired by a random nightclub song. John Lennon Double Fantasy Yoko Ono Lennon heard Rock Lobster by The B-52s in a nightclub in Bermuda, while on vacation, and thought it sounded just like Yoko's musico. so he said to himself It's — Source: Rolling Stone

1

The Nintendo GameBoy inspired props from The Rise of Skywalker. RV Hinstende GAME BOY.. Hirtende The computer terminals in Babu Frik's workshop are basically slightly futuristic versions of the GameBoy. — Source: CinemaBlend

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