First Contact

right|300pxFirst Contact was a telemovie which became the book and film Contact.
==Origin==
Coppola and Sagan had developed a television special[ back in 1975, titled First Contact. Under their development agreement, Coppola and Sagan were to split proceeds from the project with American Zoetrope and Children's Television Workshop Productions, as well as any novel Sagan would write. The TV program was never produced, but in 1985, Simon & Schuster published Contact and Warner Bros. moved forward with development of a film adaptation.
==Development==
Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan began working on the film in 1979. Together, they wrote a 100+ page film treatment and set Contact up at Warner Bros. with Peter Guber and Lynda Obst as producers. When the film ended up in development hell, Sagan published Contact as a novel in 1985 and the film adaptation was rejuvenated in 1989. Roland Joffé and George Miller had planned to direct it, but Joffé dropped out in 1993 and Miller was fired by Warner Bros. in 1995. Robert Zemeckis was eventually hired to direct, and filming for Contact lasted from September 1996 to February 1997. The majority of the visual effects sequences were handled by Sony Pictures Imageworks.
Category:Carl Sagan
Category:Unused TV scripts