Andrew Niccol (The Truman Show) The Truman Show
Niccol wrote the original spec script as dystopian science fiction set in a fake New York
Andrew Niccol, a New Zealand-born screenwriter who had been working in London advertising, wrote the spec script initially titled "The Malcolm Show" in the early 1990s. His version imagined a far bleaker premise: a fake, rain-drenched New York City built on a Hollywood soundstage, with Truman as an alcoholic, emotionally disengaged man whose discovery that his life was a television show came as a third-act twist rather than the audience-known premise of the finished film. The tone was closer to Niccol's Gattaca than to Peter Weir's eventual film. (hollywoodreporter, dazed)
"I did envisage something darker. In the original script, there was an innocent passenger attacked on the subway as a way to test Truman's courage, and Truman had a platonic relationship with a prostitute who he dressed as Sylvia." — Andrew Niccol, The Hollywood Reporter (2023)
Producer Scott Rudin purchased the script in fall 1993 for slightly over $1 million and set it up at Paramount Pictures. The price reflected how unusual the screenplay was — a high-concept premise that resisted easy genre classification. (wikipedia)
The original ending had a rooftop standoff and a different final line
Niccol's original ending replaced the quiet exit through the dome wall with a violent escape: Truman fled through a Hollywood backlot, took a tour guide hostage, and confronted Christof in a rooftop standoff. A later version had Truman discovering a souvenir store devoted to himself. Peter Weir made the decision to end the film at the moment Truman leaves the set — a choice Niccol came to agree with.
"For a while, I think the last line was, 'You never had a camera in my head.'" — Andrew Niccol, The Hollywood Reporter (2023)
Niccol went through sixteen rewrites to get from dystopia to Seahaven
When Peter Weir signed on as director, he found the script brilliant but too dark. The logic was practical: a television network would not build an expensive dome to produce something visually bleak. The show within the show needed to be watchable — sunny, pleasant, aspirational. Niccol went through sixteen rewrites to transform his rain-soaked New York into Seahaven's pastel perfection. (dazed)
"I always thought the premise was bullet-proof, and even though the original draft is set in an alternate version of New York City — if you can fake it there, you can fake it anywhere — I was happy to embrace Peter's more idyllic, small-town take on a counterfeit world." — Andrew Niccol, The Hollywood Reporter (2023)
Carrey's casting shifted the tone as much as Weir's direction did
Niccol acknowledged that Jim Carrey's presence changed the film's register independently of the script rewrites.
"I think once Jim came on board he almost dictated the tone of it and Peter had his own sensibilities." — Andrew Niccol, TCM (2023)
"Peter immediately saw how Jim would elevate the story, which of course he undoubtedly did." — Andrew Niccol, The Hollywood Reporter (2023)
Niccol wrote The Truman Show before Gattaca but Carrey's schedule delay reversed the release order
Gattaca reached theaters in October 1997, eight months before The Truman Show opened in June 1998. Both films explore constructed identity and institutional control — a man trapped by a system that defines what he can be — but Niccol saw The Truman Show as the earlier work.
"It would actually be a spiritual predecessor. I wrote The Truman Show before Gattaca, but we had to wait over a year for Jim Carrey, so Gattaca came first." — Andrew Niccol, The Hollywood Reporter (2023)
Niccol did not predict reality television and apologized for it
The Truman Show opened in June 1998. Big Brother debuted in September 1999. Survivor premiered in May 2000. Niccol watched the premise he had treated as dystopian science fiction become prime-time entertainment within two years.
"I certainly didn't foresee the onslaught of so-called reality television. I doubt the film had much to do with it. If it did, I apologize." — Andrew Niccol, TCM (2023)
His later reflection was sharper:
"I am a bit surprised that we have become our own Trumans, turning the camera on ourselves and cataloging every aspect of our own lives, willingly." — Andrew Niccol, The Hollywood Reporter (2023)
The screenplay earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay and won the BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay.