Sylvester Stallone had a wonderful idea for a science-fiction story that revolved around a fictional meeting of two of history’s greatest composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach. Of course it had to involve science-fiction since time-travel would be necessary for these particular historic figures to meet as their lifetimes did not overlap. It would require seeking some financial backing, and he also wanted to involve his good friend Arnold Schwarzenegger to help ensure box office success.

The two actors’ agents began negotiations even as Mr Stallone began to work on the script. Big names like this working together gave the agents confidence that it was worth hammering out a deal even before seeing a treatise of the script. It turns out this was a good thing, because negotiations take a while and the script took months to hammer out as well.

One day, after many months of work, Mr Stallone invited Mr Schwarzenegger over to his home for a read-through of the script. Stallone would read the part of Johann Sebastian Bach while Schwarzenegger read the part of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The read-through took several hours, and many notes were made along the way but the core of the story was one they both felt strongly would work.

There was ultimately only one sticking-point that the two men could not agree upon. Stallone was happy with the two men reading the parts as they had done this day, while Schwarzenegger was not. Finally, in an attempt to get the final word on the subject, Mr Schwarzenegger decided it was time to leave and as he exited the home of Mr Stallone, he said…

“I’ll be Bach!”