Films with pages Sonic the Hedgehog includes information about Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). Pokémon includes information on the live-action Pokémon movies.Examples without pages open/close all folders Unsorted Films A To L Unsorted Films M To Z DC Comics Green Lantern (2011): Early drafts of the film featured Legion as the Big Bad, rather than Parallax. The movie was heavily altered in editing, with a number of elements removed or switched around. Flashbacks showing Hal Jordan's childhood with Carol Ferris and Hector Hammond were cut, as was another flashback that would have provided set-up for Hal's race track construct later in the film. Parallax was originally going to be a surprise third act reveal, but the studio altered the story so that he was established as the main threat from the very beginning. This change incited Creator Backlash from director Martin Campbell. Justin Timberlake, Bradley Cooper, and Jared Leto were all in the running to play Hal Jordan. A cameo featuring Nick Jones as John Stewart (the Green Lantern audiences knew from Justice League) was filmed, but ultimately cut. Earlier drafts featured Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern, as a Retired Badass who would have served as the narrator and something of a mentor to Hal. Guy Gardner was going to appear in a cameo. The Green Lantern ring was going to search for other potential Green Lanterns first, stopping at the Daily Planet and landing on the desk of Clark Kent, before flying off again. The cameo was cut due to budgetary concerns. One ending would have Hal kissing a dying Carol and reigniting the Green Lantern ring. The film ends with an obvious Sequel Hook for a second installment with Sinestro as the Big Bad. The movie was initially going to be the start of a DC cinematic universe, with Angela Bassett's Amanda Waller playing a Nick Fury-like role throughout the various films. This idea was scrapped due to the film's poor reception and box office bombing, and DC eventually started their shared universe with Man of Steel. Robert Smigel wrote a script for a comedic Green Lantern film that would have starred Jack Black as a Canon Foreigner GL named Jud Plato. According to Smigel, the Corps would've been portrayed in a serious, respectful manner, which he felt would serve to make Plato seem funnier by comparison. Highlights included Jud proving his fearlessness by eating a coyote on live TV, and catching criminals with a giant energy condom. But seeing as this news came out around the time of the "creative liberties" of Catwoman (2004)... Meanwhile, back in The '80s there was a similar attempt at a comedic Green Lantern which would have starred Eddie Murphy. George Miller came close to making a Justice League of America film in 2007, with a cast consisting of Armie Hammer (who would later play The Lone Ranger (2013)) as Batman, D.J. Cotrona as Superman, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman, rapper Common as Green Lantern (John Stewart), and Adam Brody as The Flash (Barry Allen), with Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, and a teenage Wally West appearing as well. The story had Maxwell Lord (played by Jay Baruchel), Talia al Ghul, and the OMACs as the villains, with a plot loosely inspired by Mark Waid's Tower of Babel, and Greg Rucka's The O.M.A.C. Project and Countdown to Infinite Crisis. The movie would have ended with Barry pulling a Heroic Sacrifice to defeat Lord, setting up Wally to become the new Flash in future installments. It got far enough along in production that sets were created and filming was ready to start. However, the project was put on hold before filming could commence following the 2007 writer's strike, the death of the costume designer, and an unfavorable change in Australia's tax code. Even after the strike ended and a new costumer designer was hired, most of the cast had moved on and Warner Bros. lost interest in the project following the success of The Dark Knight, leading to the film's cancellation. The Sandman, as directed and written by Roger Avary with aid from the guys who went on to write Pirates of the Caribbean. The original script blended Preludes and Nocturnes and A Doll's House with the meeting of the Endless that opens Season of Mists, so you have Morpheus trying to reclaim the symbols of his office while trying to stop The Corinthian from using Rose Walker to take over the Dreaming. Then Jon Peters (yup, that guy again) got his hands on the script, and tried to insert, among other things: Morpheus in tights; Morpheus talking even more pretentiously than he already does; Morpheus engaging The Corinthian in hand-to-hand combat; and that damned mechanical spider. Gaiman took one look at the script after Peters was done with it, declared it a work on unparalleled crap, and the film has rested in Development Hell ever since. Watchmen: The first movie version, which was never made, looks like it would have been a much more typical humorous action heavy campy superhero flick. The fact that the project got stuck in Development Hell and was eventually dropped is probably proof of God's mercy. In one script, the reason masked heroes are outlawed is when they fail to save the Statue of Liberty from being blown up by terrorists, and Ozymandias' plot was to open a time portal and kill Dr. Manhattan before he transformed, and it all would have ended with history being rewritten and the Watchmen ending up in a dumpster in OUR world. Watchmen had a boatload of "What Could Have Been"s. Among them: Terry Gilliam was at one point attached to be director. At this point, Arnold Schwarzenegger was considered for the part of Doctor Manhattan. In 2004, Simon Pegg was in negotiations for the part of Rorschach and Joaquin Phoenix was considered for the part of Doctor Manhattan (who was designed to have visible intestines). Jessica Alba, Milla Jovovich, and Jennifer Connelly were considered for the part of Silk Spectre II. One version of the script had the character being given "slingshot powers" from Doctor Manhattan. Keanu Reeves tried for some time to get the part of Doctor Manhattan. Jude Law, Lee Pace, and Tom Cruise all were considered for the part of Ozymandias. Ron Perlman had discussed playing The Comedian. Wonder Woman: At one point, there were plans in 2001 for a film by Joel Silver, with the then-current script drafted by Todd Alcott. It was set to feature both Diana Prince and Donna Troy in the role of Wonder Woman. Donna would have been an ordinary woman that suddenly gained super powers similar to Diana's, and would spend the movie trying to locate her would-be mentor so both could fight off the wicked Dr. Psycho. But the script was also said to ditch Wonder Woman's classic costume in favor of giving her a black catsuit, although her classic uniform would be referenced at some point. Joss Whedon became attached to the Wonder Woman project in 2005, but left two years later, citing Creative Differences with Warner Bros. over the direction of the film. This version would have covered Diana's meeting with Steve Trevor and her journey to the outside world. Cobie Smulders would have played Wonder Woman. Concept art for the film later surfaced, which showed that Wonder Woman would've worn a Matrix-style black duster and leggings over her traditional costume. Whedon's draft of the film is said to be one long Break the Haughty for Diana. Steve Trevor tells her she can never be a hero because she's never known real suffering (calling her "a fucking tourist"), she is forced to dance sexily for Dionysus, and is ultimately Buried Alive in a mass grave. Marvel Comics Michael Chabon pitched short movie treatments for the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. The Fantastic Four was to be set in an Alternate History which, tonally, "was forever November 21st, 1963" and, plot-wise, was to involve Doctor Doom travelling back in time to assassinate a key world figure in order to remake the world into a grim dystopia that was pretty much the real world. Soviet agents were also going to be involved somehow. Black Widow: Years prior to her debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there was a solo film for the character that almost happened. A script was written up by David Hayter before the failures of Catwoman (2004) and Elektra led the executives to conclude that there wasn't an audience for female superhero movies. For a while it looked like the popularity of Scarlett Johansson's portrayal of Black Widow would lead to the film being Saved from Development Hell, but this turned out to be false. Instead, Captain Marvel became the MCU's first female headliner. Black Widow would have to wait until 2021. Blade: The studio originally wanted a white actor to play the titular character, but screenwriter David Goyer argued against this. Other candidates Mike DeLuca suggested for the lead role included Denzel Washington and Laurence Fishburne. Blade: Trinity: German director Oliver Hirschbiegel was considered to direct after the film's original director left by order of Wesley Snipes. By that time, he had signed a contract with Constantin Film to direct Downfall, which stated he could not move on to other ventures during production of the film. Hirschbiegel decided not to bail from Downfall after legal action was threatened against him. This ultimately paid off for Hirschbiegel in the end. Downfall was universally-acclaimed and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, while Blade: Trinity was critically panned, flopped at the box office and was the indirect Franchise Killer for the Blade Trilogy. Rachel van Helsing from the comics was originally going to be one of the three leads, but she was replaced with an Expy named Abigail Whistler in order to avoid inviting comparisons with the Van Helsing movie. The plot for the movie was originally going to be an After the End story featuring Blade protecting the last remnants of humanity after vampires have taken over the world. The studio vetoed the idea because they thought it would be too bleak and expensive. Daredevil:The title role was initially won by Matt Damon. However, Damon ended up having Creative Differences with the director Mark Steven Johnson and left. Colin Farrell, Edward Norton, Guy Pearce and Vin Diesel were also candidates for the role up until Ben Affleck stepped in. Fantastic Four: Before the legendarily bad Roger Corman-produced The Fantastic Four, there were plans on making a solo film starring the Human Torch. This is the main reason why the Torch didn't show up in The Fantastic Four (1978) cartoon. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014): Chris Pratt initially turned down the role of Peter Quill because he felt like he was too fat for the lead role. He eventually ended up losing over 60 pounds to take the role. Pratt also auditioned for the role of Jake Sully in Avatar (the role which went to Sam Worthington) and Kirk in Star Trek (2009) (the role that went to Chris Pine). This may be somewhat of a subversion since Chris Pratt didn't think he would get either of those roles anyway, also mentioning a G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra audition that he labeled as "embarrassing". Nick Fury: George Clooney was considered for the role right around the time Fury (MAX) dealing with its version of the character — and said mini killed the deal as Clooney was disgusted by some of the stuff in it, including a scene of Fury strangling the main villain with his own intestines, and bowed out of the project. Red Sonja (1985): Michael Moorcock has mentioned that, if it weren't for a timely intervention by his lawyers, his famous Evil Weapon Stormbringer might've appeared unauthorised in the film. Silver Surfer: In the early 80s, producer Lee Kramer approached Marvel about making a Silver Surfer movie, which would've co-starred Olivia Newton-John as the Surfer's love interest. Envisioned as an epic in the vein of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the film was planned to have an operatic rock soundtrack with 1000 guitars, and Kramer approached Paul McCartney (a massive comic fan) to write music for the project. Due to the Fantastic Four's movie rights belonging to Constantin Films, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby collaborated on a graphic novel called Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience, a new standalone origin story for the character that was planned to be used as the basis for the film. Despite concept art being created and McCartney expressing interest, the film never got off the ground. Quentin Tarantino approached Constantin Films about making the movie, but was turned down. In 1991, a group of film students finished a short film starring the character, which used then-revolutionary CGI effects. Despite massive interest from various studios and Oliver Stone contacting the students about adapting the short as a feature, the project ended up in limbo. John Turman wrote a screenplay, which featured the Surfer coming to Earth ahead of Galactus' arrival and encountering various quirky human characters, including Alicia Masters. The Surfer ends up stripped of his powers after an encounter with an evil military general, but eventually regains them and is convinced to turn against Galactus by Alicia. In 1999, 20th Century Fox approached a still-unknown James Gunn to write a Silver Surfer treatment. He turned down the project in favor of a Spy vs. Spy film, which also never got made. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was supposed to lead to a Silver Surfer spin-off, as well as a third Fantastic Four movie, which would've reportedly featured the Black Panther. In interviews at the time, director Tim Story expressed interest in casting Djimon Hounsou as Black Panther. J. Michael Straczynski was brought in to write the Silver Surfer movie, which would've been both a sequel and an origin story, and would've featured Galactus in his iconic humanoid form instead of as a sentient cloud. The underwhelming performance of Rise of the Silver Surfer ultimately ended up killing both projects. Films by creator Robert Altman had a few movies that never got made due to other circumstances. The first was Wild Card, which was a baseball comedy with Bill Murray as a pitcher trying to lead his team into the then-new Wild Card spot in the MLB Playoffs. The project got scrapped days before filming was to start due to a president change at MGM and the new president feeling the film was too expensive. The second was a film called Paint, which was a comedy about an art heist and the suspects in the robbery. This was set to start filming in early 2004 but Altman contracted cancer (which he eventually passed away from in 2006) and the film had to be canceled. Charles Band has a huge amount of these. Most notably, there was proposed an epic three-part Puppet Master trilogy where the puppets would fight the Mummy, Dracula, and Frankenstein's monster. Francis Ford Coppola wanted to make a Pinocchio adaptation. Salvador Dalí was a big fan of the Marx Brothers, and was particularly fascinated with Harpo for his surrealist charms. After contacting the Bros., Dalí started making plans for a surrealist film starring them, with a big focus on Harpo, Giraffes on Horseback Salda. The film would have taken place at a dinner party with enormous giraffe lanterns looming overhead. It obviously never got made. That doesn't just sound like a good and possibly insane film. That sounds like the greatest film ever made. Judy Garland: She was supposed to star in three MGM musicals that were made without her: The Barkleys of Broadway (which was supposed to follow up on the success of Garland and Fred Astaire in Easter Parade but instead reunited Astaire with his old partner Ginger Rogers), Annie Get Your Gun (which Garland was partially filmed in before being replaced by Betty Hutton) and Show Boat (where Ava Gardner played the part written for Garland). Judy was also, much later, slated to play Helen Lawson in the extremely notorious film version of Jacqueline Susann's novel Valley of the Dolls, but proved so unreliable by that point she never got past the screen test stage (Some of the crew however considered her firing to be staged by the film's director, who supposedly kept her waiting till very late in the day deliberately, knowing she'd be in no shape to perform). Michael Jackson really wanted to get into acting after he became a megastar, but those ambitions never amounted to much. Among the could-have-beens: Playing Peter Pan. Jackson was considered as Peter for Steven Spielberg's Hook, but didn't care for the film's premise of an older Peter Pan rediscovering his childhood. When Paramount briefly considered producing The Crow (1994), they intended it to be a Jackson vehicle and a musical. Upon being contacted about such an adaptation creator, writer, and illustrator of the comics, James O'Barr apparently laughed his ass off at the idea, thinking they were joking, only to be stunned when told they were serious. According to the book Michael Jackson Unauthorized, he had a conversation with Spielberg about playing the title character in the movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera (at the time, Spielberg's name was being thrown around as a potential director for it). Lloyd Webber has confirmed that Jackson wanted that role badly and kept bringing it up with him, but he was never seriously considered for it. In 1993, according to Entertainment Weekly, the first round of child molestation allegations killed a Jack and the Beanstalk adaptation and an original superhero movie, MidKnight. There was also talk earlier in '93 of mounting a remake of 7 Faces of Dr. Lao with him as the title character. In the book Michael Jackson Inc. colleague/producer Rusty Lemorande discusses an unnamed film that made it to the pre-production/conceptual art stage and sounds suspiciously like this one — the model sets included a circus train and an inner-city block (suggesting a Setting Update), and there were character designs for a variety of creatures Jackson would have played. Michael Jackson Inc. also briefly discusses Jackson's attempts to buy the struggling Marvel Comics in the mid-1990s, with the intent of adapting its flagship titles into movies he could star in. Had this panned out, he might have played such roles as Tony Stark/Iron Man and Charles Xavier. Plans were announced for at least two film projects that never came to fruition at the Turn of the Millennium: The Nightmare of Edgar Allan Poe and Wolfed, a werewolf movie based on Alexandre Dumas' The Wolf King. He would have played the lead roles in both. As the Edgar Allan Poe film was going to be written by a Smallville writer and directed by the guy who made Fear Dot Com, Cracked.com declared it the "worst movie Hollywood never made". The Way of the Unicorn, the Endangered One was an animated feature that would have featured his voice. Faulty reporting on this one may have led to the "Michael Jackson was involved in the long-rumored live-action The Last Unicorn adaptation" rumor. According to the book The Man Behind the Mask, Jackson was willing to appear in Men in Black II for free... if Will Smith was dropped from the film so he could play the protagonist. He wound up in a cameo instead. The scene in question is a little awkward. According to brother Jermaine's book You Are Not Alone, Jackson was all set to campaign for the role of Willy Wonka in the second Charlie and the Chocolate Factory adaptation...then he was accused of child molestation for a second time, and that became impossible. Colleague/producer Marc Schaffel (in the biography Untouchable) goes further with this, claiming that Michael wrote a whole soundtrack for the movie and submitted it to Warner Bros. in 2000, figuring that they would give him the lead on the basis of it. But though executives loved it, they were not comfortable casting him as Willy Wonka, and offered to find another role in the film for him in exchange for the soundtrack. Michael was too dead set on the lead role to allow this, so it fell through. Untouchable also mentions that he was working on a King Tut project for years. He was planning to co-direct, with Bryan Michael Stoller, a film adaptation of Jennings Michael Burch's They Cage the Animals at Night, a memoir of child abandonment and abuse in the orphanage/foster care system. Jermaine has also claimed that Michael was supposed to be one of the founders of DreamWorks SKG, alongside Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen, and points to the resemblance of the DreamWorks logo to that of Michael's Neverland Valley Ranch — which was established as such in the late 1980s — as proof. (Both feature a boy sitting on a crescent moon.) For unknown reasons, Michael was left out when the plans were finalized. No one else has made similar claims about this, though, so take this with a grain of salt... He wanted to be The Riddler in Batman Forever. He even lobbied to play a Klingon(!) in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Stanley Kubrick had several unrealized projects, most notably Napoleon. Said to be the greatest film never made, there was a whole coffee table book about it. Sergio Leone had several unmade films: A Place Only Mary Knows: An "Americanized" western co-written with Luca Morsella, and Fabio Toncelli and speculated to be his last western, it would have starred Richard Gere and Mickey Rourke. Set during the height of the American Civil War, the story focused on a Union drafter, Mike Kutcher from Georgia, whose job is to enroll men into the Union army. The other is Richard Burns, a Southern shady businessman transplanted to the North after a successful heist with his ex-lover and partner, Mary. Searching for the buried treasure left behind in an unmarked grave outside Atlanta in “A Place Only Mary Knows”. Joined by a freed slave and an Italian immigrant, Francesco, who arrives via the port of Boston, they try desperately to avoid the battles of the ongoing war between the states. A contemporary adaptation of Don Quixote starring Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach. He had discussed doing the project throughout the 1960s-1970s, and he started seriously considering it towards the end of his life. He was an avid fan of Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind and the 1939 film adaptation. His relatives and close friends stated that he talked about filming a remake that was closer to the original novel, but it never advanced beyond discussions to any serious form of production. He was a fan of Louis-Ferdinand Céline's novel Journey to the End of the Night and was considering a film adaptation in the late 1960s; he incorporated elements of the story into The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and A Fistful of Dynamite but his idea of adapting the novel itself never got past the planning stages. He started writing a screenplay based on The Phantom, and scouted locations for the project. Despite this, he never got to make a movie based on the comic book hero. He declared he would have liked to follow this with a movie based on another Lee Falk-created character, Mandrake the Magician. Leningrad: The 900 Days: A war epic based on Harrison Salisbury's non-fiction book The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad. The film would have opened In Medias Res as the camera goes from focusing on a Russian hiding from the Nazis' artillery fire to panning hundreds of feet away to show the German Panzer divisions approaching the walls of the city. The plot was to focus on an American photographer on assignment (whom Leone wanted to be played by Robert De Niro) becoming trapped in Russia as the German Luftwaffe begin to bombard the city. Throughout the course of the film, he becomes romantically involved with a Russian woman, whom he later impregnates, as they attempt to survive the prolonged siege and the secret police, because relationships with foreigners are forbidden. According to Leone, "In the end, the cameraman dies on the day of the liberation of the city, when he is currently filming the surrender of the Germans. And the girl is aware of his death by chance seeing a movie news: the camera sees it explode under a shell .... "By 1989, Leone set the film's budget at $100 million, and had secured half of that amount in financing from independent backers from the Soviet Union. He had convinced Ennio Morricone to compose the film score, and Tonino Delli Colli was tapped to be the cinematographer. Shooting was scheduled to begin sometime in 1990. The project was cancelled when Leone died two days before he was to officially sign on for the film. Alex Cox offered to replace Leone as director, but was unable to secure the remaining $50 million required to produce the film. In the early 1970's, Jerry Lewis (of all people) wanted to adapt The Catcher in the Rye and star as Holden. As with many other attempts at doing the story, he was unable to get the rights. Lewis documents the ordeal in his book The Total Film-Maker. David Lynch has had a few projects that turned out like this, including his followup to Eraserhead, Ronnie Rocket, and the film One Saliva Bubble. Paul McCartney: He has stated that Franco Zeffirelli offered him the role of Romeo for his 1968 Romeo and Juliet. He was also asked to play Billy Shears in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), a role that went to a rather unlucky Peter Frampton when Paul wanted nothing to do with the movie. River Phoenix was on the cusp of being a breakout star when he died, resulting in him being replaced for roles he had been slated for: Daniel Malloy, the interviewer in Interview with the Vampire. The role went to Christian Slater, who donated his salary to charities Phoenix supported. Izzy Singer, in Safe Passage. He was played by Sean Astin. Cleve Jones, in Gus Van Sant's Milk. The movie was in development hell for more than a decade, until Van Sant finally produced Milk, with Emile Hirsch playing Jones. Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries. Leonardo DiCaprio portrayed him. The lead role in a Neil Jordan/John Boorman movie Broken Dreams. The movie remains on hold. When River died, he was starring in Dark Blood. The film was left unfinished for almost twenty years, before the film was recut and due for release in 2012. Peter Sellers' sudden death in 1980 affected or scuppered several projects: He was to topline a remake of Preston Sturges' Unfaithfully Yours and the original comedy Valium! Both projects were eventually filmed as Dudley Moore vehicles, with the latter retitled Lovesick. Grossing Out was a satire about arms dealers to be scripted by Terry Southern (who wrote the source novel for The Magic Christian and co-wrote the Dr. Strangelove screenplay) and directed by Hal Ashby (who had directed Sellers in Being There). Most famously, Romance of the Pink Panther was a Grand Finale for the franchise that Sellers was co-writing prior to his death and for which Blake Edwards was well paid not to be involved in (directors that were attached: Sidney Poitier, then Clive Donner). The plot would have had Clouseau fall in love with a beautiful woman (Pamela Stephenson) without realizing that she's "The Frog", the jewel thief he's trying to capture. United Artists tried to revive this project as a Dudley Moore vehicle (again!), but Moore would not play Clouseau unless Edwards was involved. Edwards didn't want to shoot that script, Moore moved on, and we got the Clip Show of Trail of... and Replacement Scrappy of Curse of... instead. In a related issue, for a while Edwards was working on The Ferret, set in the same universe as the Pink Panther series but focused on an original character: The son of a famous spy, forced to take his father's place. Sellers was still around when it was first being developed, but it ended up more associated as a could-have-been for Moore before it was demoted to a standalone TV movie in 1984 starring Steve Guttenberg. (That the role was attached to Moore can be seen in the character being a jazz musician, as Moore himself was.) Guillermo del Toro has a load of unrealized projects. Frank Zappa: 200 Motels, Zappa's intended fantasy about the things that can make a band go crazy during a tour, had a series of troubles during the production, finishing with only a third of the script filmed. A new plot was made in the editing room with the material gathered, and was released in 1971. Also by Zappa, was 1969 project Uncle Meat, which was aborted in an even earlier stage of production. A direct-to-video release in 1987 gathered the little that was filmed, including behind the scenes and footage of live concerts with spoken and musical material that were to be worked upon in the film. Although the movie project remained in obscurity, the soundtrack was released in 1969 and is regarded by fans as a high point in Zappa's career. Before Steven Soderbergh was signed on to direct Magic Mike, Channing Tatum wanted Nicolas Winding Refn to direct the film. Refn turned it down due to a busy schedule but you would have more than likely seen a totally different film than Soderbergh's serious semi-biopic on the film's star. Chris Farley was offered to star in a biography of 1920s comedian Fatty Arbuckle. He and David Spade also planned a film version of his Saturday Night Live character Matt Foley. At the time of his death, Farley had been in talks to costar with Vince Vaughn in The Gelfin. He also planned a biopic of Hermann Goering. In 1993, Arnold Schwarzenegger told Oprah Winfrey that he rejected out of hand a script that would have had him play a Tooth Fairy. Tooth Fairy from 2010, starring Dwayne Johnson, is likely the end result of the project after 17 years of on and off Development Hell. When Joaquin Phoenix decided to make a return to acting, he was weighing two choices on which film to do. The one he made was The Master. The one that he turned down? Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Therefore, we very nearly had two famed method actors play Abraham Lincoln in the same year. In 1989 Debbie Gibson was set to make her starring film debut in Skirts for Columbia Pictures, with choreographer Jeffrey Hornaday making his big-screen debut as a director — but then-studio head Jon Peters put his foot down thusly:Jon Peters: No choreographer will ever direct a picture here!Executive: But what about Bob Fosse?Jon Peters: I don't want him, either.note Bob Fosse directed All That Jazz for Columbia — and was, by this time, the late Bob Fosse (he passed away in 1987). But Peters may have called it correctly with Hornaday, who made his directorial debut two years later for Universal with Shout... and didn't direct another movie for two decades, until Geek Charming. Henry Cavill was called by one magazine, "the unluckiest man in Hollywood". There is a rumor that fans wrote in to have him play Cedric in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but he lost out to Robert Pattinson. Stephenie Meyer herself wanted him to play Edward Cullen in Twilight, but by the time production started, he was too old and again lost out to Pattinson. He also lost out to Daniel Craig for the role of James Bond in Casino Royale (2006). Ironically, he also was nearly cast as Superman in Superman Returns, 8 years before he played Superman in Man of Steel. The various Brothers Gibb were at times destined to have a much more illustrious film career.... In the late Sixties, a version of Hair was pitched, starring Barry as Berger and Maurice as Woof. Barry turned down the part as he refused to appear nude. Andy Gibb was considered for the male lead in Xanadu, but turned down as his drug addiction was at an all-time high at this point. Likewise, Andy was considered for the male lead in Grease 2, which ended up going to Maxwell Caulfield. This has never been proven, but it seems logistical that Andy, whose career was at its peak at the time, would've been considered for the male lead in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) alongside his brothers. Maurice Gibb recorded a score for low-budget B-movie The Supernaturals — coincidentally starring Maxwell Caulfield — which was replaced in most editions of the film. Ironically, reviewers bashed the replacement score (which Maurice had nothing to do with), claiming it to be annoying and unnecessary. Rob Liefeld: Dooms IV, an "ecological superhero film" based on Rob Liefeld and Kurt Hathaway's short lived Image comic. The movie was supposed to take place after the comic, and was planned to be produced by Amblin Entertainment and directed by Steven Spielberg. Movies based on Youngblood (Image Comics), to be directed by Brett Ratner, Bloodstrike, and Godyssey, based on an Avengelyne story, were announced, but updates became sparse after 2013. The entire career of George Lucas might not have happened. In high school, he had aspirations of being a race car driver and did amateur races. Just before graduation, he was involved in a serious crash that destroyed his car. (Ironically, he survived because he was thrown from the wreck due to his seat belt failing.) After the crash, he decided to make movies instead. Interesting because there are two other possible outcomes: he might have become a race car driver or he could have died. Lucas had also planned to become a pilot and filled out an application to join the Air Force. When he took his physical, he found out that he was diabetic and was turned down. At the 2009 D23 Expo, Robin Williams announced that he would star in a Disney comedy called Wedding Banned, which would have been about a divorced couple who kidnap their daughter from her own wedding so she wouldn't make the same mistakes they did. It ended up being cancelled after the failure of Old Dogs. Quentin Tarantino was at one point interested in making a movie about Vic Vega aka Mr. Blonde from Reservoir Dogs and Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction whom he revealed were brothers, it was to be titled "The Brothers V", the project was cancelled after Michael Madsen and John Travolta had aged to the point where they no longer looked like they did in their respective films. Otto Preminger liked to have several film projects going at once, and he never got around to filming many of them: In 1954, Preminger traveled to India, and then began work on The Wheel, a Hindu drama in which Mahatma Gandhi was to "play a symbolic role." Preminger acquired the film rights to Alexander Fedoroff's novel The Side of the Angels, and had Elmer Bernstein compose a Title Theme Tune that could have been used to promote it. Nothing more came of this project. Director Russell Mulcahy, planning on a transition from music videos to films, fully intended to helm a film adaptation of the William S. Burroughs novel The Wild Boys with Duran Duran doing the musical score for the film. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you're not a fan of Mulchay or DD) the project never got off the ground, leaving only one song, which happened to be one of the best-selling singles of Duran's career ("Wild Boys"). Later on Mulcahy got to collaborate with another band on a film project that actually succeeded, Highlander, with the music provided by Queen. David Lean: His next film after The Bridge on the River Kwai was a biopic of Mahatma Gandhi, produced by Sam Spiegel and starring Alec Guinness. He spent most of the '70s trying to get his two-part Mutiny on the Bounty remake off the ground. He scouted locations in Tahiti, built a replica ship and commissioned Robert Bolt to write the screenplay. The main problem? Money. At various points Dino De Laurentiis, Joseph E. Levine and even Lean's old sparring mate Sam Spiegel were tapped to produce. But Lean's refusal to rein in the budget or scale back the script scared all of them away from the project. Robert Bolt's stroke in 1979 finally convinced Lean to abandon the project. Eventually the project morphed into The Bounty (1984), directed by Roger Donaldson and starring Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins. Though based off Bolt's screenplay, this film was much smaller in both scope and budget than what Lean originally envisioned. He was to film an adaptation of Nostromo, with Steven Spielberg producing it for Warner Bros., but Lean died a few weeks before the principal photography was to begin. Marlon Brando, Paul Scofield, Anthony Quinn, Peter O'Toole, Isabella Rossellini, Christopher Lambert, Dennis Quaid and with Georges Corraface as the title role, had all been set to star. Lean also wanted Alec Guinness to play Dr. Monygham, but the aged actor turned him down in a letter from 1989: "I believe I would be disastrous casting. The only thing in the part I might have done well is the crippled crab-like walk." Bruce Lee was originally going to star in a live-action movie update of Charlie Chan titled "Number One Son", playing the role of Chan's first-born son, who would have been portrayed as a Chinese James Bond. The idea was scrapped when the Batman TV show became popular and The Green Hornet TV show was created (in which Lee played the role of Kato). Helena Bonham Carter was originally considered for the role of Bess McNeil in Breaking the Waves, but dropped out suddenly and was replaced with the then-unknown Emily Watson. Watson was initially considered for the role of Elizabeth I in Elizabeth, but was replaced by the then-largely unknown Cate Blanchett. Watson was also considered for the role of Amélie, (originally named Emily) but dropped out and was replaced by the then-unknown Audrey Tautou. Following Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948) and Richard III, Laurence Olivier planned a film adaptation of Macbeth with himself in the title role and Vivien Leigh as Lady Macbeth. Sadly, the box office disappointment of Richard III and the death of one of the financiers put an end to it. Sean Connery agreed to return as James Bond for Diamonds Are Forever in exchange for United Artists greenlighting two projects of his choosing. One got made — the gritty crime thriller The Offense. The unmade film — an adaptation of Macbeth with an all-Scottish cast. Alas, it was abandoned following Roman Polański's adaptation. In the early seventies, Richard Burton told Olivier of his plan to adapt Macbeth to the big screen with Elizabeth Taylor as his Lady. Michael Winner planned a Bio Pic of William The Conqueror with Oliver Reed in the lead role. It was scrapped when they couldn't get funding. Behold, the unmade projects of John Hughes: National Lampoon's Jaws 3/People 0 (1979). A documentary spoof of the making of Jaws. Due to a lawsuit from Steven Spielberg looming if it was made, Universal Studios scrapped it. National Lampoon's The Joy of Sex (1981). A comedy anthology film about the life of a young man obsessed with sex, even when he enters adulthood. It was originally to star John Belushi and be directed by Penny Marshall, but when a reluctant Belushi decided to go ahead with the film, he died from a drug overdose the next morning and Paramount did not produce the movie. The script was eventually re-written as a teenage sex comedy under the title Joy Of Sex in 1984. Matty Simmons was involved with the movie, but ordered to have his name and the National Lampoon moniker taken off the film after he saw the final cut. The History of Ohio from the Beginning of Time to the End of the Universe (early 80s). A dramatic adaptation of Lampoon’s Sunday Newspaper Parody, an Onion-like sendup of a small-town paper. Lovecats (1984) A movie that would've starred Molly Ringwald, named after The Cure song of the same name. The plot is unknown, but a mixtape of what the soundtrack would've been was made by Hughes to give Ringwald an idea of what the film would be like. The Last Good Year (1984). A movie with Anthony Michael Hall set in 1962, the titular last good year before The British Invasion. The movie would follow America's cultural shift following the Invasion. Just like Lovecats, a mixtape of the supposed soundtrack was made by Hughes. The New Kid (1986). A movie meant to star Anthony Michael Hall as the new kid in college. Passed over by Howard Deutch in favor of Pretty in Pink. Oil and Vinegar (1987). A comedy-drama road movie meant to star Matthew Broderick and Molly Ringwald. Broderick would play a groom driving out of town to a wedding with Ringwald as a hitchhiker that he picks up. They both then talk about their personal problems in the car for the remainder of the trip. Bartholomew Vs. Neff (1991). A comedy meant to star John Candy and Sylvester Stallone as feuding neighbors. Likely passed over after Curly Sue received negative reception from critics. Black Cat Bone: The Return of Huckleberry Finn (1991). A modern retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Peanuts (1992). A supposed live-action adaptation of the titular comic strip. Likely canceled in favor of Dennis the Menace. The Bee (1994). A Disney movie about a man, played by Daniel Stern, and his daylong battle with a simple bee. Tickets (1996). A group of teenagers pull an all-nighter in sub-zero temperatures waiting for tickets to a legendary rock concert. Never made due to a similar film, Detroit Rock City, entering production first. Grisbys Go Broke (2002). A middle-class family lose all their money and are forced to spend the holidays frugally. It was rumored that Paramount was going to make this movie upon the passing of Hughes, but no news has been heard since. Behold the unmade films of Walter Hill: Lloyd Williams and His Brother aka The Drifters — a Western written circa 1971. Hill says Sam Peckinpah was considering making it after The Getaway but decided to do Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid instead so Hill used material from the script in Hard Times. The Last Gun — a Western written with Roger Spottiswoode (circa 1977). Lone Star from the play by James M. McClure to star Powers Boothe and Sigourney Weaver (1981). The Last Good Kiss based on a novel by James Crumley (early 1980s). An adaptation of Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (early 1980s). An adaptation of Jim Thompson's Pop. 1280 (1980s). A remake of The Magnificent Seven (1960) (1984). A remake of The Killer (1989), with Richard Gere as the assassin and with Denzel Washington as the cop. Left the project due to Creative Differences. American Iron (1989/1990) — a film set in the world of bikers written with Marc Brunet, Daniel Pyne, and John Mankiewicz. Red, White, Black and Blue (1997) — rewrite by Hill of an Andrew Kevin Walker script. Vengeance of Mine — a contemporary thriller set in Las Vegas. A proposed remake of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?. Michael Cimino claimed to have written fifty scripts in his time. Amongst his unmade films: His dream project was an adaptation of The Fountainhead. Taking its cue from more than the novel, it was largely modeled on architect Jørn Utzon's troubled building of the Sydney Opera House, as well as the construction of the Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York. He wrote the script in between Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and The Deer Hunter, and hoped to have Clint Eastwood play Howard Roark. He spent two and a half years working with James Toback on The Life and Dreams of Frank Costello, a biopic on the life of mafia boss Costello, for 20th Century Fox. "We got a good screenplay together," said Cimino, "but again, the studio, 20th Century Fox in this case, was going through management changes and the script was put aside." Cimino added, "Costello took a long time because Costello himself had a long, interesting life. The selection of things to film was quite hard. While working on the Costello biopic, he wrote a biography on Janis Joplin called Pearl, also for 20th Century Fox. "It's almost a musical," replied Cimino, "I was working with Bo Goldman on that one and we were doing a series of rewrites." In 1987, he attempted to make an epic saga about the 1920s Irish rebel Michael Collins, but the film had to be abandoned due to budget, weather and script problems. The film was to have been funded by Nelson Entertainment. He started pre-production work on Santa Ana Wind, a contemporary romantic drama set in L.A. The start date for shooting was to have been early December 1987. The screenplay was written by Floyd Mutrux and the film was to be bankrolled by Nelson Entertainment, which also backed Collins. Cimino's representative added that the film was "about the San Fernando Valley and the friendship between two guys" and "more intimate" than Cimino's previous big-budget work like Heaven's Gate and the yet-to-be-released The Sicilian. However, Nelson Holdings International Ltd. cancelled the project after disclosing that its banks, including Security Pacific National Bank, had reduced the company's borrowing power after Nelson failed to meet certain financial requirements in its loan agreements. A spokesman for Nelson said the cancellation occurred "in the normal course of business," but declined to elaborate. He was in talks to direct The Yellow Jersey, a bicycle racing drama with a script by Carl Foreman and starring Dustin Hoffman. The project was ultimately abandoned as it proved logistically difficult to shoot during the actual Tour de France. One of his final projects was writing a three-hour-long adaptation of Andre Malraux's 1933 novel Man's Fate, about the early days of the Chinese Revolution. The story was to have focused on several Europeans living in Shanghai during the tragic turmoil that characterized the onset of China's Communist regime. "The screenplay, I think, is the best one I've ever done," Cimino once said, adding that he had "half the money; [we're] trying to raise the other half." The roughly $25 million project was to be filmed wholly on location in Shanghai and would have benefited from the support of China's government, which said it would provide some $2 million worth of local labor costs. Cimino had been scouting locations in China since 2001. The following projects were announced for Errol Flynn but were not made: Danton (1936) based on Dantons Death and to be produced by Max Reinhardt and directed by William Diertele. The White Rajah (late 1930s) – based on the life of Sir James Brooke based on Flynn's own story. The Romantic Adventure (1938) – a romantic comedy with Joan Blondell based on an original story by Jerry Wald and Maurice Leo. The Outpost (1939) based on Caesar's Wife by Somerset Maugham starring Flynn and Geraldine Fitzgerald directed by Michael Curtiz. Shanghai (1940) from a story by Somerset Maugham. Jupiter Laughs (1940) from the play by A.J. Cronin. The Life of Simón Bolívar (1939–40) – possibly with Bette Davis. The Sea Devil (1942) – a remake of The Sea Beast which was adaptation of Moby-Dick. Ghosts Don't Leave Footprints (1941) – sequel to Footsteps in the Dark. To the Last Man (early 1940s) – comedy with Alexis Smith. The Devil, George and Rosie (1943) – from a story by John Collier to star Flynn, Ann Sheridan and Humphrey Bogart. The Frontiersman (circa 1945) – an original western by Alan Le May about the beginning of a riverboat operation in the Mississippi to be produced by Flynn and Mark Hellinger with Raoul Walsh directing. Stallion Road (1945), based on a novel, with Ida Lupino. Target Japan (1945) with producer Jerry Wald and director Raoul Walsh about a B-29 bombing crew. The Man Without Friends (1945) based on story by Margaret Eckhard about a man accused of the murder of his wife to be produced by Henry Blanke and adapted by Catherine Turney. untitled adventure film "in the Frank Buck tradition" shot off the coast of Mexico produced by Flynn. Thunder Valley (1946) — a Western written by James Webb and produced by Owen Crump. General Crack (circa 1947) – remake of a 1929 film originally starring John Barrymore. Half Way House (circa 1947) – an "alpine thriller" by Frances Potter and Spencer Rice. The Turquoise (circa 1948) with Claude Rains and Dorothy Malone based on the adventure novel by Anya Seton — set in the American southwest in the 1890s, written by Edmund North produced by William Jacobs. The Candy Kid (1948) with producer Bill Jacobs — story of a gambler in the days of Diamond Jim Brady from a script by Borden Chase based on a magazine story by Michael MacDougall. The Last of the Buccaneers (circa 1949) – a pirate movie based on a script by Flynn himself to be produced by Flynn, shot in technicolor with the star as a Robin Hood type pirate (not to be confused with the 1951 Paul Henreid film) story of the female pirate Mary Burns with Greer Garson (circa 1949) (he and Garson also discussed doing a Broadway play together). The Man Who Cried (1950) – production with William Marshall described as a psychological thriller about the perfect crime which took place over four hours. The Man from Sparta (1951) – movie to be shot in Italy about Spartacus. The Bengal Tiger (1952). Fire Over Africa (1952). The Green Moss (1952) from a magazine serial by John Molloy to co-star Gordon Macrae directed by Roy del Ruth. The Talisman from the novel by Sir Walter Scott (1953). Abdulla the King (1953) in the title role with Dawn Addams directed by Gregory Ratoff. Dragonfly (1953) – proposed adventure film from producer John Champion set in the Far East with Flynn as an air force officer whose command is threatened with desertion. The Story of William Tell (1953) — an epic he was to produce and star in, shot in location in Italy. This was to be the directorial debut of acclaimed English cinematographer Jack Cardiff. The film was abandoned due to financial difficulty. Had the film been completed on time it would have been the first independent movie filmed in Cinema Scope. A little more than a minute of footage was shown on Turner Classic Movies in the early 1990s as part of a feature on Flynn, but that short clip itself is now lost as well. Flynn's estate have chosen to remain silent about it. A £10,000 model town set was built near Mont Blanc. The model ski resort was turned into a real ski resort that uses the film's production to lure tourists in every year, and is still active today. The White Witch of Rose Hall (1954) – to be made with Herbert Wilcox based on a Jamaican legend about a female plantation owner who was a witch and killed her husbands – to be produced by Barry Mahon – Flynn was still working on it in 1957 saying he wanted Bob Evans to star and Charles Marquis Warren to direct. Lord Vanity (late 1950s) – with Robert Wagner Ten Days to Talara (1956) with the same director of The Big Boodle'' about an adventurer whose son is kidnapped. untitled Debbie Reynolds project as her teetotal father (circa 1958). Kevin Spacey's Gore Vidal biopic was at least partially completed, but thanks to his scandals, will most likely never see the light of day. When Harold Ramis guest-hosted At The Movies, he revealed that John Belushi's big ambition was to star in a biopic of Ludwig van Beethoven. John Milius planned to make a biopic of Senator Joseph McCarthy entitled The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy, but it was never made. Warner Bros. wanted him to update Dirty Harry and he wanted them to fund a version of The Iliad. He was going to direct a film about Alexander the Great starring Jean-Claude Van Damme but that was put on hold when a mini series on the same topic was made by Italian TV. He wrote Harlot's Ghost, for Francis Ford Coppola based on a novel by Norman Mailer; Milius described it as "a cross between The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. It's about families and duplicity and danger, but this time provoked by the government.". Baz Luhrmann planned an Alexander the Great biopic starring Leonardo DiCaprio which was abandoned following Alexander. Bob Fosse's next film after Star 80 would have been a film about gossip columnist Walter Winchell starring Robert De Niro from a script by Michael Herr. He died before filming started. He also planned a film adaptation of Chicago starring Goldie Hawn as Roxie Hart, Liza Minnelli as Velma Kelly and Frank Sinatra as Billy Flynn. Behold the unmade films of Alfred Hitchcock. There were talks of Ron Howard directing a Bill Hicks biopic starring Russell Crowe. Laurel and Hardy had several unmade films: In 1938, Stan and the L&H staff writers began working on a story which had the team in a swashbuckling adventure on Devil's Island. Stan's then wife Illiana would have played the feminine lead. The idea was nixed after the writers had too much difficulty in completing the story. During the 1940s, Laurel and Hardy wanted to star in a film adaptation of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. In 1942, Boson Blackie writer Paul Yawitz was hired by 20th Century Fox to submit a story for a Laurel and Hardy film. Me and My Shadow would have found the duo running around an amusement park, trying to save a baby from a couple of Nazi spies. Around the same time Me and My Shadow was written, Chuck Roberts and Eugene Ling proposed another story for a Laurel and Hardy Fox film. It too would have found the team against Nazis, this time in a sanitarium in Switzerland. Yet another L&H story proposed to Fox was a film adaptation of stage play By Jupiter. The film would have taken place in ancient Greece, where the population is entirely dominated by Hippolyta (a role intended for Martha Raye) and her female warriors. Stan and Ollie would have played the easily bullied Theseus and Hercules, who unsuccessfully attempt to steal Hippolyta's power. Congratulations, another proposed L&H-Martha Raye vehicle would have found Stan running for governor. Two proposed radio series: The Laurel and Hardy Show (which did result in a pilot episode being recorded) and Laurel & Hardy Go to the Moon. An autobiography on the team, partially written by Laurel and partially written by Hardy. Following the death of comedian Edgar Kennedy, RKO Pictures considered starring Oliver Hardy in The Average Man series of short comedies. While on a trip in England, there was talk of starring the duo in a film adaptation of Robin Hood. RKO Pictures wanted the duo to appear as the comic relief in the 1951 Technicolor musical Two Tickets to Broadway. However, the team was stuck in Paris filming Atoll K, which ultimately continued production months over schedule. RKO hired vaudevillians Joe Smith and Charley Dale as replacements. In 1956, the team was in negotiations with Hal Roach to star in a series of technicolor television specials collectively titled Laurel and Hardy's Fabulous Fables. Each episode would have featured the duo in a retelling of a popular fairy tale, the first of which was to be Babes in the Woods. Stan Laurel suffered a stroke shortly before production was to begin, putting the series on hold. Oliver Hardy's death a year later prevented the series from being made. Billy Wilder planned on making a film with the duo that saw them sleeping in the two Os in the Hollywood sign. This was scrapped when Oliver Hardy died. Billy Wilder's A Night at the United Nations starring the Marx Brothers as crooks who cause chaos at the U.N. This was abandoned following Chico's death and Harpo undergoing heart surgery. Orson Welles and Michael Caine discussed a film adaptation of Ronald Harwood's play The Dresser. Peter O'Toole was scheduled to star with Toshiro Mifune in Will Adams, to be directed by John Huston, with screenplay by Dalton Trumbo and produced by Eugene Frenke and Jules Buck. This would have been a biopic of the first English sailor to reach Japan. Steven Seagal's dream project was a biopic of Genghis Khan that he would direct and star in. No, really. He got as far as scouting locations in Asia and casting actors to play his relatives before it was cancelled due to legal issues involving the mafia. Ray Harryhausen's unrealised projects: The Jupiter Project (1937): A Flash Gordon–like adventure in which a spaceship lands on Jupiter and encounters a multi-armed creature. Evolution of the World (also known as Evolution) (1940) War of the Worlds (1949) Food of the Gods (1949): Based on a story by H. G. Wells. The Valley of the Mist (1950): An unrealized Willis O'Brien project about the discovery of an Allosaurus in a lost valley. The concept later became the basis for Harryhausen's 1969 film The Valley of Gwangi. Baron Munchausen (1950) The Elementals (1952): Harryhausen wrote the original outline story about bat creatures that nest in the Eiffel Tower and terrorize Paris, France; he sold the idea for development to Jack Dietz in 1953, but the project, after several scripts—including one by Ray Bradbury—languished. A test sequence was nonetheless filmed showing Harryhausen battling one of the bat creatures on a hill. The Tortoise and the Hare (1953): Only partially filmed, the shelved project was resumed a half-century later and completed in 2002 by Harryhausen, in collaboration with animators Seamus Walsh and Mark Caballero (who had offered Harryhausen, long-retired since 1981, their services to help him finish the film). Tarzan and the Ant Men (1960): Dropped due to difficulties in obtaining rights to the Tarzan franchise. Food of the Gods (1961) Skin and Bones (1963): Based on the novel by Thorne Smith about a photographer who invents a compound that makes him invisible. Sinbad and the 7 Wonders of the World (1981) Sinbad Goes to Mars (also known as Sinbad on Mars; Sinbad's Voyage to Mars) (1981) Sinbad in the Age of Muses (1960): Title given to the Harryhausen's earliest work which then evolved into Jason and the Argonauts. Sinbad and the Valley of Dinosaurs (1966): Harryhausen considered making a Sinbad film involving dinosaurs however it met little interest. He instead co-produced The Valley of Gwangi. People of the Mist (1983): Based on an H. Rider Haggard story; planned for Michael Winner; dropped by Harryhausen due to Winner's insistence on radically changing the story. Force of the Trojans (1984): A version, with mythological creatures, of Aeneas and his journey after the fall of Troy; a sequel to Clash of the Titans (1981). The Story of Odysseus (1996–1998): Harryhausen was consultant on story development and character design for Carrington & Cosgrove Hall Productions. Terry Gilliam planned a film adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities starring Mel Gibson. When he left to make Braveheart, it was then going to star Liam Neeson before being abandoned. He also planned a film adaptation of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. During Terrence Malick's hiatus from filmmaking, he developed a few projects during his twenty-year hiatus. Q, which explored the origins of life on Earth; The English Speaker, about Josef Breuer's analysis of Anna O.; adaptations of Walker Percy's novel The Moviegoer and Larry Mc Murtry's The Desert Rose; and a script about Jerry Lee Lewis. Some of Ken Russell's unmade projects: A biopic of ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinski, which was abandoned after the failure of Billion Dollar Brain. Little Sparrow, a film about Edith Piaf. A biopic of King Ludwig of Bavaria. He announced a biopic of Sarah Bernhardt with Barbra Streisand. A Dracula adaptation in the late seventies. He originally considered Laurence Olivier as Dracula. His later cast was either Peter O'Toole or Mick Fleetwood in the lead, with Peter Ustinov as Van Helsing. He also wanted Oliver Reed as Renfield, with Sarah Miles and Mia Farrow as Lucy and Mina, respectively. Michael York and James Coburn were also on Russell's wishlist (most likely for Jonathan Harker and Quincey Morris respectively). Beethoven's Secret was about to start shooting when financing fell apart at the last minute. He was attached to do the film of Evita for over a year, but ultimately left the project when he refused to cast Elaine Paige in the lead. He planned a biopic of Maria Callas with Sophia Loren that also failed to get financing. He had a legal fight with Bob Guccione over an aborted attempt to film Moll Flanders which was dramatised in a movie, Your Honour, I Object! Towards the end of his life, Russell was planning a remake of the 1976 erotic musical comedy Alice in Wonderland. He offered Kathleen Turner the role of the Queen of Hearts (everyone in her court would have been naked except her), but he died before anything could come of it. Martin Scorsese planned a Dean Martin biopic called Dino. It would have starred Tom Hanks as Martin, Jim Carrey as Jerry Lewis, John Travolta as Frank Sinatra, Hugh Grant as Peter Lawford and Adam Sandler as Joey Bishop. William Goldman's unmade projects: Flowers for Algernon: Good Old Charley Gordon (1964) – an adaptation of Flowers for Algernon done for actor Cliff Robertson – Robertson was unhappy with the version and hired Stirling Silliphant to write what became Charly. The Chill (1967) – adaptation of the 1964 Lew Archer novel by Ross Macdonald. In the Spring the War Ended (1968) – from the novel by Stephen Linakis about American deserters in Europe at the end of World War Two. Lawrence Turman was producer and Martin Ritt attached as director but the studio, 20th Century Fox, decided not to make it because they wanted Pentagon co-operation for Patton. The Thing of It Is... aka That's Life (1968) – adapted from his novel. Piano Man – adaptation of his novel Father's Day Papillon — an adaptation script that wasn't used. A musical remake of Grand Hotel with Norman Jewison to direct. The Sea Kings (late 1970s) – a pirate movie about the relationship between Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard, the first of a three-picture deal with Joseph E. Levine. Goldman said he wrote the part of Blackbeard for Sean Connery and at one stage Richard Lester was attached as director. Goldman says Connery and Roger Moore were considered stars, then later Roger and Dudley Moore. However the film was too expensive to make. The Ski Bum aka Hot Shot (1981) – based on the article "The Ski Bum as an Endangered Species" by Jean Vallely, it was about a man who appeared to live the glamorous life of ski instructor at a resort, only he lives in a trailer with his wife and child. Goldman said this was never made due to tension between the producer and the studio. The Right Stuff – adaptation of the Tom Wolfe book that was not used. Rescue! (1980–81) – story of the rescue of employees of Ross Perot by Arthur D. Simons during the Iranian revolution. Goldman said this foundered when Clint Eastwood, the only suitable star to play Bull Simons, elected to make Firefox. Flora Quick, Dead or Alive. The National Pastime. Singing Out Loud – unproduced musical worked on with Rob Reiner and Stephen Sondheim. Low Fives (1992) – comedy about an African who plays for a basketball team in a small college, commissioned by Danny DeVito and intended to star John Cleese and DeVito. Shazam! (c 2003) – a film adaptation of DC's Captain Marvel. The Shooter – an adaptation of the Stephen Hunter novel Point of Impact that was to have been directed by Lee Tamahori. Mission: Impossible II – script that was not used. He also declined opportunities to write The Godfather and Superman. David Cronenberg could-have-beens: He was offered several projects by Paramount Pictures before and after The Dead Zone, all of which were too "mainstream" for his liking. Witness, which he specifically declined because he saw Amish society as too repressed for him to respectfully depict. Flashdance Beverly Hills Cop (the Sylvester Stallone vehicle version) Top Gun He had a two-script deal with Universal Pictures in the early 1980s that only produced one film, Videodrome. The other script he wrote for the deal was Six Legs, a comedy "about entomologists discovering an insect on a Caribbean island that is addictive when you eat it." The initial draft he wrote didn't appeal to the executives, however (by his own admission he rushed the writing), and they passed. He was attached to Total Recall (1990) back when the rights were with The Dead Zone's producer Dino de Laurentiis, but ultimately left due to severe Creative Differences. (This famously freed him up to do The Fly (1986).) Early in The New '10s he wrote a Spiritual Successor to The Fly (1986) for 20th Century Fox, but it remains unproduced. For a man who made many films over five decades, you can imagine that there were a considerable John Ford projects that never came to ground: In The '30s, Ford lobbied Darryl F. Zanuck to produce an English language remake of The Grand Illusion (by Jean Renoir), which he greatly admired. Zanuck, in a surprising aversion of typical Hollywood behaviour, stated that Renoir's film was a masterpiece and it would be a pity to remake it.note Zanuck was personally a Francophile and quite partial to French culture, though ironically he and Renoir did not get along too well In The '50s, Ford heavily involved himself with Lord Kilkenny to develop a slew of movies in Ireland in the hope of developing an Irish Cinema. He shot The Quiet Man in Ireland for this reason and The Rising of the Moon, an anthology film adaptation of Irish short fiction, was an Irish production. One of the segments for the latter film was to be an adaptation of James Joyce's The Dead with Katharine Hepburn as Greta Conroy. It didn't pan out but years later, John Huston would adapt the short story in a separate production. Ford also expressed interest in making a movie about Ulysses S. Grant, seeking to restore the reputation of America's greatest general after decades of Pro-Confederate smears. The closest he ever came was "The Civil War" in How the West Was Won. Towards the end of his life, Ford expressed interest in adapting Arthur Conan Doyle's The White Company (one of his favorite books) and lobbied extensively but his declining health and non-Western and non-commercial subject matter hindered any production. During the last months of John Belushi's life, he attempted to create a vehicle for himself after the back-to-back failures of Neighbors and Continental Divide. The film, Noble Rot, was about the troublemaking son of a Northern Californian winemaker family. When his elder, more responsible brother falls ill, he's sent to New York in his place for a big wine competition, only to get involved in a diamond forgery scheme by an attractive wealthy woman. The film was meant to be a throwback to the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 40s with Belushi still being comedic but now the straight man, a complete 180 from his iconic role as "Bluto" Blutarsky of Animal House. However, Michael Eisner, then-CEO of Paramount Pictures, refused the script and tried to persuade him to take the lead role of The Joy Of Sex. Despite Belushi's attempts otherwise, he failed in trying to pitch Noble Rot and accepted the other role before dying days later. Miscellaneous items A short story about films that could have been. This website has a huge amount of unmade Kaiju films on it. some are interesting like King Kong Vs. Frankenstein and Ray Harryhausen's unmade film Force of the Trojans makes one nostalgic for the greatness that never was. There are several horror movies that never were on this list, some of which have been mentioned here, but amongst those that haven't: A sequel to the bizarre horror film Society, supposedly giving greater detail on the society of old-money, blue-blood shape-shifting monsters Kalidescope, an Alfred Hitchcock film about a serial killer that was supposed to be made with all new filmmaking techniques Two sequels to Peter Jackson's Bad Taste! House of Reanimator, a sequel to the Re-Animator series that has a plot involving Herbert West re-animating the effing Vice President of the USA! The Steven Spielberg film Night Skies, a film about alien scientists tormenting a farmer's family and mutilating their livestock, which evolved into E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial when Spielberg wanted to do something less dark (the dark elements gelled into Poltergeist), and latched onto a subplot about a friendly one of the aliens befriending the family's child to build a movie around. Supposedly Rick Baker made a really cool special effects model for one of the aliens, but there appears to be no pictures of it around. Columbia Pictures was supposed to distribute Night Skies given their work with Spielberg on Close Encounters of the Third Kind (they wanted Spielberg to do a sequel on that film, which Spielberg declined, yet at the same time Spielberg fretted about Columbia doing a sequel without him), but lost faith when Spielberg decided to change course and put the film in turnaround. MCA head Sid Sheinberg, through Universal, then bought the project from Columbia and worked out a deal where Columbia got 5% of E.T.'s box office profits. Columbia's then-president would go on to say that they had made more money on that film than any of their releases that year. This topic has an excellent overview of some great SF films never made. Notable ones include: Several unmade sequels to The Abominable Dr. Phibes Several unmade Ed Wood movies, including Ghouls On The Moon, The Day The Mummies Danced, Beach Blanket Bloodbath, Dr. Ackula, The Ghoul Goes West, and two pilots for his TV show. George Romero's The Stand Hammer Horror's Vampirella Screaming Room Only, a film about a psychic, tormented teenager who psychically manifests various monsters against his tormentors. A cracked-out horror film called Bloody Twilight starring John Carradine and Lon Chaney Jr. as themselves (Although in this film Carradine is literally a real vampire, and Chaney a real werewolf), hypnotizing hippies to kill directors they felt had wronged them. A Macekre of Godzilla's Counterattack called The Volcano Monsters with all new footage for the human actors and the story partially set in Chinatown to explain all the Asian architecture. Godzilla and Angirus would have been turned into an ordinary T-Rex and Anklyosaur. Charlie Chaplin's The Freak, a dramatic comedy about a young South American girl who unexpectedly sprouts a pair of wings. She is kidnapped and taken to London, where her captors cash in by passing her off as an angel. Later she escapes, only to be arrested because of her appearance. She is further dehumanized by standing trial to determine if she is human at all. It would have starred his daughter Victoria. Choice Cuts, a film about a guy cut up to provide parts for Vietnam Veterans who's head was preserved by a mad scientist. Due to a tumor he can control these parts from a distance and inducing their holders to kill. At some point in the movie the guys' girlfriend would have found his head and taken it to recover all his parts. A similar film titled Body Parts based on the same source material (the Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac novel Et mon tout est un homme) was released in 1991. In the 1950's, Warner Bros. intended to film a number of titles in 3-D but didn't due to the trend dying. Titles that could have been in 3-D included East of Eden, the 1954 version of A Star Is Born (1954), The High and the Mighty and Mister Roberts. Apparently the short that this trailer is for, about a man with an ice cream cone for a head on the run from the mob, apparently was going to be made into a movie, called Swirlee. It was supposed to be fairly serious, described as "Dick Tracy and Edward Scissorhands meets Mean Streets". But, unfortunately, the execs didn't get it and wanted to make it a kids movie. And thus it stayed unmade. Columbia short subject comedies: In the late 1940's, Columbia short subjects boss Jules White wanted a make a series of shorts featuring a young, up-and-coming comedian named Danny Thomas. However, Thomas' agent said he had his own plans to launch Thomas' career, and that short-subject comedies were not under consideration. White also wanted to include Henry Armetta (an Italian-American comic actor who frequently played barbers) on his roster of stars (which at that time included The Three Stooges, Andy Clyde, Harry Langdon, and Charley Chase). However, Armetta insisted on complete control of his shorts, saying he wanted to choose his own cast, crew, scripts, and budget. White replied, "Choose your way out." In the 2000's, studios planned to revive the Candyman and Leprechaun franchises. A crossover between the two was planned to further both franchises, but was scrapped when Tony Todd refused to appear.
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