Having had a look at actors who came close to being cast as iconic superheroes we’d thought now we’d have a look at films that we’re on the verge of being made before having the plug pulled on them.
Tim Burtons Superman Lives – There’s loads of footage of this about and a fan has even made a feature length documentary about it.
Quentin Tarantino’s The Vega Brothers – Double V Vega – this was all part of QT’s cross referencing film catalogue and would have featured Michael Madsen in his Reservoir Dogs role and John Travolta in his Pulp Fiction role. Instead he made Kill Bill Vol 1 &2
The Day the Clown Cried – Jerry Lewis plays a clown in a German concentration camp. This is a notorious film as it has actually been made but has never been released under the orders of its director/star Jerry Lewis. Few who have seen it have anything positive to say about what appears to be a stunningly tasteless, though clearly well intentioned, film. It has been admitted into the US film archive and rumour has it that it will see the light of day either on Lewis’ death or sometime between the years 2020 -2030.
Paul Verhoeven’s Crusade starring Arnold Schwarzeneggar – It’s alleged that Verhoeven had a breakdown at budget meeting. It had a $100m budget which in 1994 was enormous but the production company pulled it so as to fund, ‘Cutthroat Island’ which went on to become one of the biggest box office flops ever made.
Book of Genesis – A biblical epic that secured finance twice before the production admitted that they’d never be able to control the animals.
Kaleidoscope – A film told through eyes of a body building serial killer. Test footage was shot but the subject matter was so explicit it was pulled.
Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune. 10 years before David Lynch’s version the bonkers mad director Jodorowsky said he wanted his version to be like an hallucination and was to star Mick Jagger and be designed by the surrealist painter Salvador Dali with Pink Floyd or Peter Gabriel doing music. Incredibly this was to be a 14 hour film and after a fifth of the budget was frittered away on pre-production the producers pulled the plug. Again this is a film where a great documentary has been made about it.
Peter Jackson’s Halo – A well known Microsoft xbox game but with escalating budgets and Microsofts iron grip on the brand and up front financial demands Jackson jumped off the project and it all fell by the wayside
Orson Welles Heart of Darkness and Don Quixote – Welles’ projects were well known for being trouble stricken . His film, The Magnificent Ambersons, by all counts was a master piece but was cut to ribbons by the studio and in the end his over inflated budget for Heart of Darkness & Don Quixote put an end to both films ever being made by him.
Kubricks Napoleon – The director was notorious for detailed and fastidious research on projects that were never made. This would have starred Jzck Niholson in the lead role but was shelved due to finance and poor response to another Napoleon movie. He made Barry Lyndon instead.
There are loads more including Ghostbusters 3, various Batman V Superman scripts, The Inhumans, The Sinister Six, Gremlins 3, various Jurassic Park scripts, etc etc
