The Greatest Movies NEVER Made?

The Greatest Movies NEVER Made?

Postby Good_Eye_Sniper » Thu Mar 05, 2009 3:17 pm

I stumbled across a fascinating article today, detailing a number of high profile movies that never made it to the screen. I think you'll agree that there is some interesting, and not so interesting ideas here :

1. Baz Lurhmann’s Alexander
Following his success with Romeo + Juliet, Luhrmann began work to bring his long-cherished dream of an Alexander the Great film to life with Leonardo DiCaprio playing the titular ruler. And then Oliver Stone had to rain on his parade by beating him to the punch with his own, Colin Farrell-starring take on the warrior.

2. Steven Spielberg’s Night Skies
Spielberg was under contract to make a Close Encounters sequel, and brainstormed – sorry, mind-showered – this family under siege thriller that saw evil aliens attacking a farm. While Night Skies never got past early writing, it spawned ET, taken from the idea of one of the aliens befriending the son of the family.

3. Darren Aronofsky’s Batman
We wouldn’t trade Chris Nolan for the world, but Aronofsky definitely had an interesting take. He planned a brutally realistic version of Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One that would have been nearly unrecognisable from either Miller’s story or the previous Batman mythos. Alfred as a mechanic called Big Al who helps Bruce Wayne? Hmmm...

4. Disney’s Roger Rabbit sequel
With the first RR outing a hit, Disney naturally cranked up work on World War Two themed prequel Roger Rabbit: Toon Platoon, before producer Spielberg shut it down because he no longer wanted Nazis in his movies post-Schindler’s.

5. Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune
Back in the mid ’70s, Chilean helmer Alejandro Jodorowsky had his eyes on Frank Herbert’s novel, with Alien designer HR Geiger creating concept art. Oh, and he wanted Salvador Dali to play Emperor Shaddam IV. Dali wanted $100,000 an hour. Can’t think why it didn’t fly…

6. Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon
Described as “The greatest film Kubrick never made”, Napoleon represented one of the filmmaker’s driving obsessions. He’d done his research – working through 18,000 documents and books about the man and generating 25,000 index cards. Sadly, despite all his work, he could never get the funding to make the movie the way he wanted.

7. James Cameron’s Spider-Man
Sure, Sam Raimi’s version turned out well. But we still want to see what Cameron would have done with the web-slinger. As far back as 1989, Cameron had designs on Peter Parker, working with production company Carolco to develop it. But the company went bankrupt and its assets were sold before the film kicked off.

8. David Lean’s Nostromo
You wouldn’t think that anything could halt the work of David Lean, the man who made Lawrence Of Arabia. Sadly, it was the grim reaper that finally ended Lean’s plan to film Joseph Conrad’s epic novel Nostromo. In the end, we had to make do with a BBC miniseries.

9. Harold Ramis’ A Confederacy Of Dunces
John Kennedy Toole’s novel has defeated many a filmmaker in its long, slow, thus far abortive journey to the screen. Ramis wanted John Belushi and Richard Pryor, but Belushi’s death curtailed that version. Steven Soderbergh and David Gordon Green planned the most recent version with Will Ferrell in the lead.

10. Terry Gilliam’s Good Omens
Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman were delighted to learn Terry Gilliam wanted to tackle their apocalypto-comic fantasy. Then Gilliam’s funding curse hit, with the film stuck in purgatory. And that’s even with announcements back in 2002 that Johnny Depp and Robin Williams had been offered the lead roles.

11. Billy Wilder’s A Day At The UN
Billy Wilder once planned to make a film starring the Marx Brothers: “We want to make a satire on the conditions of the world today, on brinksmanship, wild jokes about the H-bomb, that type of stuff.” It was announced, but the brothers were either dead or too ill by the time the film was due to start.

12. Philip Kaufman’s Star Trek
Years before The Motion Picture, script treatment Planet Of The Titans, mixed super-powerful aliens with the crew accidentally helping early man learn the secret of fire. Philip Kaufman signed on, but hated most of the cast and spearheaded a new concept with Spock as a ship’s captain and Toshiro Mifune as his Klingon nemesis. It got dry-docked.


(Note : Before anyone points out the obvious, no I don't think films like Roger Rabbit 2 qualify under the category "greatest films", it was the title of the article :P )
User avatar
Good_Eye_Sniper
Tony Adams
Tony Adams
 
Posts: 5036
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:46 pm

Re: The Greatest Movies NEVER Made?

Postby Andreys_Does_Simples » Thu Mar 05, 2009 3:55 pm

I loved Roger Rabbit.
Reinvestment before Renewal.
User avatar
Andreys_Does_Simples
Match Reporter
 
Posts: 9590
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:04 pm
Location: London

Re: The Greatest Movies NEVER Made?

Postby Good_Eye_Sniper » Thu Mar 05, 2009 3:56 pm

Ades_Dancin_Shoes wrote:I loved Roger Rabbit.

Great film. Not sure a sequel would have been a good idea though :think:
User avatar
Good_Eye_Sniper
Tony Adams
Tony Adams
 
Posts: 5036
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:46 pm

Re: The Greatest Movies NEVER Made?

Postby Andreys_Does_Simples » Thu Mar 05, 2009 4:07 pm

Good_Eye_Sniper wrote:
Ades_Dancin_Shoes wrote:I loved Roger Rabbit.

Great film. Not sure a sequel would have been a good idea though :think:


Could have gone Godfather-esque and the second movie be the better, we shall never know GES :(
Reinvestment before Renewal.
User avatar
Andreys_Does_Simples
Match Reporter
 
Posts: 9590
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:04 pm
Location: London

Re: The Greatest Movies NEVER Made?

Postby Git » Thu Mar 05, 2009 4:08 pm

I would have loved to have seen a movie of Good Omens.
MML
User avatar
Git
Herbert Chapman
Herbert Chapman
 
Posts: 11825
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:55 am
Location: West Sussex, UK

Re: The Greatest Movies NEVER Made?

Postby Fabrestuta » Sat Mar 07, 2009 5:18 am

Any Alexander film would have been better than the poo that came out a few years ago. Apart from a couple of scenes it was an absolute abomination.
User avatar
Fabrestuta
Rest in Peace
Rest in Peace
 
Posts: 18570
Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 8:12 pm

Re: The Greatest Movies NEVER Made?

Postby arseman » Sat Mar 07, 2009 6:56 am

Fabrestuta wrote:Any Alexander film would have been better than the poo that came out a few years ago. Apart from a couple of scenes it was an absolute abomination.


I think that movie was a crime against humanity......

The scene from the Babylonian harem was quite something though :cloud9: ....and there were a couple of nice tunes from the soundtrack
User avatar
arseman
Dennis Bergkamp
Dennis Bergkamp
 
Posts: 6325
Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2007 10:36 am


Return to Films

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 12 guests