Amph Movie Titles That Might Have Been: "Shoeless Joe"

Movie Titles That Might Have Been

by Bob Mondello

"Shrek, Hitch, Gattaca: What's in a name? Shakespeare said a rose by any other name would smell as sweet ? but for Hollywood the question is more like, "Would that rose, by any other name, sell as many tickets?"

On a trip to Latin America recently, I saw a theater poster for a musical direct from Broadway called La Novicia Rebelde. Now, I'm pretty good with Broadway titles, but this Spanish one ? literally something like The Rebel Nun ? wasn't ringing a bell until I saw the credits at the bottom for Rodgers & Hammerstein. Suddenly, I could see a whole flock of nuns singing about how to solve a problema like Maria."

 

"Take the classic science fiction story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" That didn't sound nearly ominous enough for the dark materials Ridley Scott was putting on-screen in 1982 ? so "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" became Blade Runner."

 

"A few years later, test groups thought the title Shoeless Joe suggested a story about a homeless person, so for the screen, that baseball novel got re-christened Field of Dreams."

 

In this case, I think Shoeless Joe would have been a better title.

 

Field of Dreams is a good one though. Reportedly, Kinsella said later that it had actually been the working title for the novel before he changed it to Shoeless Joe.

 

Shoeless Joe doesn't give me images of a homeless guy, but maybe that's because I'm a baseball fan. Field of Dreams is a great title though, one of my all-time favorite movies.

 

Yes, there's a bit in the behind the scenes where the director says they will have to change the title and they came up with Field Of Dreams. The director called Kinsella to tell him and was worried that he'd hate it. When he told him, Kinsella said his original title for the book was...Dream Field. How's that for karma?

And yes, Field Of Dreams is my favorite movie of all time (even over Star Wars....**ducks from thrown Ewok meat**) And the book, Shoeless Joe is one I try to read again and again. There are significant differences to the movie, other than the title.

 

Didn't realize that was the reason for the title change, but I never minded it regardless. I had read the book a few years before the movie came out, the change I had a bigger problem with was JD Salinger being turned into a pacifist 60s peace-nick drop out. Though JEJ was brilliant.