Winning pitch

When approaching 20th Century Fox, director John McTiernan knew exactly what to say to win over the studio.

During the pitch for the movie, John described 'Hunter' – which is what the film was initially called – as "'Rocky' meets 'Alien'" which immediately grabbed the company's attention.

However, the director later admitted he saw the picture as more like a 'King Kong'.

He said: "Bunch of guys go to an island, and go deeper and deeper in, and shazam the thing they’re chasing turns out to be a lot bigger than they thought, and they have to turn around and run away!"