Spielberg and Cruise’s Minority Report was nearly Total Recall 2 with Arnold Schwarzenegger

Fancy a future where crime gets squashed before it even happens? On paper, probably sounds brilliant—no more murders, no robberies, no reason for your nan to carry pepper spray. But of course, there's always a catch when you try to out-smart human nature, as Steven Spielberg reminded us in 'Minority Report'. Here’s the twist, though—Tom Cruise wasn’t always the first name pencilled in for that leading role. In fact, the original plan might have made action fans faint: this was almost an Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi vehicle. Really.

Spielberg, Schwarzenegger, and the Odd Alternate Timeline

Spielberg and Schwarzenegger go way back, although not always where you’d expect. Most folks connect Arnie with James Cameron thanks to 'Terminator', but he did cross paths with Spielberg enough that the two built a solid rapport. Even so, the notion that Arnold could've headed up a future-themed detective thriller like 'Minority Report' seems a bit mad until you dive into Hollywood’s habit of recycling and repackaging scripts until they barely resemble the source material.

A Wild Plan: Mashing Up 'Total Recall' With 'Minority Report'

Here's where things get properly weird. Both 'Minority Report' and 'Total Recall' are built from the work of sci-fi author Philip K. Dick. The frustrated bit is that, at one point, Hollywood tried to blend them together. No joke—there was an actual plan for 'Minority Report' to be a direct sequel to Paul Verhoeven’s 'Total Recall', starring—you guessed it—Schwarzenegger as Douglas Quaid again.

The thinking was genuinely clever. After having adventures on Mars in 'Total Recall', Arnie's Quaid would head back to Earth, now heroically running a brand new 'Precrime' unit loaded with telepathic mutants. Those mutants with psychic powers? The Martians from 'Total Recall'. Not bad at all.

This bonkers collision never made it off the ground because Carolco Pictures, the studio financing the project, went bust in the mid-90s. No money, no Quaid, no psychic mutants policing Washington, D.C. Eventually, author Jon Cohen was brought on in 1997 to redo the script as a standalone, losing the explicit links to 'Total Recall'. That's when Tom Cruise comes into the picture—he gets hold of the script, pings it over to Spielberg (they'd been itching to work together for ages), and it's off to the races with a new star and no Martians in sight.

'The “Precogs” were going to be the telepathic Martian mutants introduced in Total Recall, with their psychic abilities used to predict crimes. Quite cool!'

Could Schwarzenegger Have Pulled Off 'Minority Report'?

Let’s be honest—turning a big-hit sci-fi into a franchise was the done thing. Just look what happened with 'Terminator 2'. And back in the 80s and early 90s, Schwarzenegger pretty much owned the action and sci-fi space. If he’d signed on, forget about subtlety, you’d have batched up extra explosions, one-liners, and a lot more biceps under harsh blue lighting.

Problem was, timing. If this Total Recall-meets-Minority Report business had been knocked together in the late 80s or early 90s, with Arnie and director Paul Verhoeven both at their peaks, you’re almost certainly looking at a cult classic. But by the mid-late 90s, the novelty was wearing thin—Arnie's track record had started to wobble ('Batman & Robin', anyone?), and both actor and director had lost their magic touch.

By the time 'Minority Report' actually hit cinemas in 2002, Schwarzenegger was slowly easing out of leading roles. Having him play the tormented cop John Anderton would’ve made for a very different film, probably a louder one, but with Spielberg at the helm, who knows? Might have been brilliant. Personally, much as Tom Cruise nailed it, I’d have quite liked to see Arnie do his thing as a futuristic cop on the run. Tell me that isn’t an intriguing alternate timeline.

Main Cast of 'Minority Report' (2002)

• Tom Cruise as John Anderton
• Colin Farrell as Danny Witwer
• Samantha Morton as Agatha
• Max von Sydow as Director Lamar Burgess
• Neal McDonough as Fletcher
• Steve Harris as Jad
• Lois Smith as Dr. Iris Hineman
• Peter Stormare as Dr. Solomon Eddie
• Tim Blake Nelson as Gideon

Most of the off-the-wall development details above come from the book 'Tales from Development Hell' by David Hughes, which is worth a look if you like your behind-the-scenes film gossip properly detailed, not just headline fluff.