Abortive, stalled, WHET, abandoned film projects. What are they?

I recall Jesse L. Martin saying for years he had a Marvin Gaye biopic in development. I thought he'd be pretty great in the role, but it never happened, and he's too old now to play Marvin.

I read "Beautiful Ruins" and thought it would make a great movie. I looked it up, and what I read said it was 'in production." Then nothing ever happened.

Logan's Run, have been waiting forever for it. Needs a major update!

Barbra's Gypsy owns this thread. She'll be 102 and still talking about how this might be the year it starts production.

The sequel to Girls Will be Girls with Miss Coco Peru, Varla Jean Merman, and Evie Harris! I even went to a screening of the film which was supposed to raise funds to get the sequel finished and that was at least five years ago. WTF happened?

R5 The guy that made those films is a fucking mess. He did have a bout of cancer that slowed down the process, but even before, he was an unfocused mess. He certainly makes time to Tweet 387,894 times a day, can't imagine why that film isn't done....

Girls will be Girls 2 will never, ever see the light of day, sadly.

There's long been a Dusty Springfield biopic rumored, but it's never come to fruition.

There are competing stories. For a while Cheno was attached to a project. The most recent one was announced a year ago, but seeing as though the supposed director just spent the last year running for some union presidency, I don't think it happened, for sure not happened yet.

What Nagy has been doing in recent months

Broadway: The Golden Age Part 2. I know Rick McKay died, but would love for the footage filmed to be released

R6, that's a shame! The first Girls will be Girls was camp gold!

Stevie Nicks' film/ballet/musical/mini-series about the mythological Welsh goddess, Rhiannon.

In the works since 1977!

Episode 2 of WEST 40s from DL Fave Mark Sam Rosenthal!

Still waiting!

Didn't Kubrick have a Napoleon bio-pic on the go for decades?

Did James Franco ever finish that BUKOWSKI biopic he was putting together?

Per IMDB it was made in 2013 and starred Keegan Allen, Jacob Loeb & Josh Peck, but aside from that and one review I've never seen any other mention of it. It isn't listed in any of Franco's online filmography, and there are no clips available anywhere. There is one poster/cover image on Google but no stills or screenshot. As far as I can tell from a quick search the movie is unavailable to buy or rent or even stream. It's like someone went to scrub it from the Web, but only half-heartedly and without finishing the job.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavelier and Clay should have been a movie, and, at one point I think one was going to be made. It should . it would be fantastic, and it would have a wide audience, considering it is about WW2, immigration, and the nascent origin of a lot of familiar comic superheroes.

Also, wasn't Pink supposed to be in a Janis Joplin biopic at one point?

[quote] that's a shame! The first Girls will be Girls was camp gold!

I agree - loved it. Perfectly done and a riot.

I think the director got in over his head with #2. To raise funds they had people filming bits that they promised would be included in the movie somehow.....plus I don't think there was ever a real script.....

The Dreyfus Affair (gay movie) has been "in development" for a decade now.

The John Boorman Hadrian movie never got made.

[quote] The Dreyfus Affair (gay movie) has been "in development" for a decade now.

Longer than that - I remember when it was originally optioned in the mid 90s.

It's almost outdated now, really.

A film version of "A Confederacy of Dunces" has been talked about for decades. I know John Candy was going to play Ignatius and then Will Ferrell. Nick Offerman did a stage version within the last few years. The book is so wonderful, and its fans (like me!) are almost cult-ish in their devotion. A miniseries might be a better option.

Weren't they going to make a movie about the Watergate wives, "Dirty Tricks" or something. It was on imdb.com for awhile and disappeared. I think Meryl was attached.

M is always attached, like a leech.

Still waiting for "Stompanato" to be made; it's been "in development" for years. Catherine Zeta Jones and Keanu Reeves were originally attached o star as Lana Turner and Johnny Stompanato, but now they're both too old.

OP, the Foundation movie seems to have been supplanted by a Foundation tv series, similarly stuck in development hell. It’s supposedly in pre-production at Apple TV, but I’m not holding my breath.

I used to know the guy who, at one point, owned the film rights to "A Confederacy of Dunces". I've always thought it would be a very difficult movie to cast. PSH (who's no longer an option) would've been an excellent choice for Ignatius; Grace Zabriskie would be the perfect Irene Reilly.

Good topic

Gwyneth Paltrow optioned THE SECRET HISTORY back in the 90s.

Still waiting on Devil in the White City.

The Goonies 2

Though it seems like many films have the title Time and Again, none of them are based on the Jack Finney novel that supposedly Redford had optioned for a film in the 70s. Once the technology caught up to be able to do a great job of recreating 1880s NYC, I was hopeful that it might become reality and be well done. But it seems like there has been nothing but stagnation in it’s march to the cinema.

Gwyneth Paltrow in the 90s would have been an excellent Camilla in The Secret History. I can picture Paul Bettany playing Charles, Christian Bale as Richard, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Bunny. 1990s Anthony Hopkins OR Derek Jacobi could have rocked Julian. Don't have ideas for Francis or Henry.

The most heartbreaking unmade film of all-time was Luchino Visconti's "Remembrance of Things Past." Oh, the cast! Garbo, Brando....Talked about endlessly; never made.

"The Goree Girls," based on the true story of a group of women prisoners who form a country and western band in a Texas prison in the '40s, was to be produced by Jennifer Aniston. I remember the IMDb page showed a cast list that included Nickelodeon star Jennette McCurdy, who can actually sing. It is still listed as "in development," but the linked story is ten years old, so I doubt there will be any further developments.

WHET the Sylvester documentary?

Brian De Palma's adaptation of Alfred Bester's science fiction novel The Demolished Man - never made because he count's get it financed.

John Carpenter's adaptation of Alfred Bester's science fiction novel The Stars My Destination - see above.

David Cronenberg's Frankenstein

Aren't you all forgetting something?

[Quote] Luchino Visconti's "Remembrance of Things Past."

Harold Pinter wrote a screenplay. Not the same one surely? Pinter decided his should remain unfilmed.

Sunset Boulevard

The legendary script "Harrow Alley" owns this thread. 40 years in the (un)making, this rendering of the Black Plague features a cast of tens of thousands... dying... dying during what was feared to be the end of mankind.

David Lynch's Ronnie Rocket conceived in the 1970s and was to star a bald Sissy Spacek with a dwarf!

Sex dating for men -> lovegay.club

There's been talk of a sequel to "Heather" for decades. I don't think it will happen. If it did, it would probably suck.

Same with "A Confederacy of Dunces." There's been movie talk about it for decades. If it had ever gotten made John Candy would have been born to play it; he was immensely talented, the exact right physical type, and would have handled the dialogue (Ignatius P. Reilly had a very annoying, specific manner of speech). Other actors who were said to be slated to play Ignatius were John Belushi, Chris Farley, Stephen Furst, Divine and Will Ferrell. I think it's a blessing no film ever got made. It seems to be a cursed project.

Way back when, for a brief period Jodie Foster and Russell Crowe were said to be an "item." She was supposed to have directed him in a movie called "Flora Plum." Crowe was to have played a "circus beast" who falls in love with a trapeze artist (Claire Danes). He injured his shoulder and the project was shelved. It never got made. Good! Sounds like it would have been awful.

There was supposed to have been a remake of a Don Knotts film "The Incredible Mr. Limpet, a tale about a man who wants to be a fish so bad he somehow turns into one. I never thought the original was that great, but a new live action version was proposed, starring Jim Carrey. Roughly $10 million was spent on animation tests to digitally map Carrey's motion-captured human face onto a fish's body, which produced disastrous results. Carrey dropped out; others in consideration for the lead role were Robin Williams, Chris Rock, Mike Myers, and Adam Sandler.The last person said to be playing the role was Zach Galifianakis. Writers and directors of the movie came and went. It never got organized enough to movie forward, which was just as well. Who needs a remake of "The Incredible Mr. Limpet."

A bio-pic about the life of Janis Joplin has been talked about forever. Here's a list of some who have been said they were going to play her in the movie that never got made: Courtney Love, Amy Adams, Nina Arianda, Reese Witherspoon, Zooey Deschanel, Pink, Renee Zellweger, Lili Taylor, Brittany Murphy, Melissa Etheridge. They probably all would have sucked as Janis.

Back in the 80's I read an article about a film which was supposedly being made in Montana about a cattle drive. The script had been rattling around Hollywood for years. I think it was all bullshit and really wasn't being made at all, which was a good thing. It was starring, of all people, Sean Connery and Cher. I can't imagine that happening in the heat and dust of summer in Montana without someone ending up murdered.

Better Midler as and in Disney's Lotte lenya, which incidentally is when she sold out re lottes lesbianism and precipitated her own decline.

Is the Sunset Boulevard thing real? It says it is in pre production but I always thought it was just M playing the cruellest of tricks on G.

Is the late Patricia Nell Warren's "The Front Runner" even relevant or topical anymore? (A love story between a running coach and his star athlete; not the recent Senator Gary Hart movie under the same title, starring Hugh Jackman). The movie adaptation has been kicking around forever, since the mid-1970s, without success. At one point Paul Newman was attached to the project.

R46 I got so excited when I saw Front Runner and Hugh Jackman, but it was a letdown.

[quote]Weren't they going to make a movie about the Watergate wives, "Dirty Tricks" or something. It was on imdb.com for awhile and disappeared. I think Meryl was attached.

Seems like a good time to dust off a few Nixon era projects

A Star is Born

When Winona Ryder was all the rage in the early 90s I recall talk of her playing Edie Segwick in a biopic. Or maybe it was just an interview with her I read where she said how much she wanted to play her. She looked very much like her so it would have been great casting. Unfortunately nothing materialized. Eventually in 2006 the awful "Factory Girl" with Sienna Miller was made (with Shreveport, Louisiana trying and failing to pass itself off as 1960s Manhattan).

Hocus Pocus 2

David Cronenberg wanted to make a sequel to Eastern Promises, but it never got off the ground.

Molly Ringwald was in talks with Warren Beatty (he was to have directed it) about doing a film about Edie Sedgwick. The movie never got made. The movie finally made about her that starred Sierra Miller wasn't that great. I never thought Edie Sedgwick was a very good subject for a movie. Although now a cult figure, she really wasn't very interesting, really didn't accomplish much of anything in her short life. I don't think the movie going public would have had much interest in a movie about her no matter who played her. I did think Guy Pearce was good as Andy Warhol, though. He got Warhol's fey, empty personality just right.

Another aborted David Lynch project was One Saliva Bubble which was to star Steve Martin.

Here's every old queen waiting for a film version of "The Front Runner":

There's a screenplay about the founding fathers called 'The Revolution' that's been kicking around for decades and is supposed to be excellent. It still might turn up in this post Hamilton world.

After all, the Alienist finally turned up 25 years later as a TV project.

Dawson's 500 Load Holiday.

D. M. Thomas wrote a book about all the Hollywood offers he received for The White Hotel which was never filmed.

Long, long ago, there was a novel by Erica Jong called "Fear of Flying." Its principle character is a scholarly (the literary references all throughout the book are really annoying) but ditzy Jewish woman, almost thirty years old, from a crazy family: Isadora Wing. Her first husband was a psychiatrist who went crazy. Her second husband is an emotionless (but good in bed, except that he won't eat her pussy) Chinese psychiatrist. They go to some kind of psychiatrist's convention and there she meets Adrian Goodlove (what a name!), "a shaggy haired Englishman with a pipe hanging out of his face."At their first meeting he farts loudly and grabs "a fistful" of her ass; his nickname for her is "ducks." Naturally she immediately fall in love with him. He convinces her to leave her boring husband, her boring marriage and go off with him around Europe to fuck each other and anybody else they come in contact with , to go thither and yon, not caring what happens from one day to the next, just taking each day as it comes. It's supposedly her "liberation", but it doesn't turn out to be exactly that. At any rate, the novel was considered quite a big deal, really hot stuff. And for a while it was considered the hottest property in Hollywood. The infamous Julia Phillips was in talks with Jong about producing or even directing it. EVERY actress in Hollywood was said to want to play Isadora. The frontrunner was said to be Barbra Streisand, but Goldie Hawn would have been the perfect choice; she even physically resembled the character. But the movie never got made, which was really just as well. It would have been hard to make the slutty, educated but dumb, Isadora Wing a sympathetic character. Erica Jong, many years later, said she still hoped that one day a movie might be made, perhaps Isadora telling her daughter the story of her younger days, making the story a kind of period piece. But I don't think the saga of Isadora Wing, slutty and man crazy and addicted to cock, would go over too well today. Back in the seventies her antics would be considered titillating and liberating, but today they seem kind of pathetic.

R59 All that, with no paragraphs even, and you don’t mention the “zipless fuck,” which will be the only remaining seed remembered when the rest of the book is long forgotten?

Oh yeah, the "zipless fuck" from "Fear of Flying." It really was just an anonymous sex encounter, wasn't it? At any rate, when Isadora finally gets her chance for the elusive "zipless fuck" (a stranger on a train attempts to fuck her) she's disgusted and repulsed. I guess the fantasy was a lot better than the reality of an anonymous, wordless sexual encounter with a stranger.

Free Fall 2. They raised more than expected but it has been six years since the first.

Alejandro Jodorowsky’s version of the movie Dune.

Chilean film director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s version of the movie Dune had a cast and crew lined up that included H.R. Giger, Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger, David Carradine, Gloria Swanson and Orson Welles, with music by Pink Floyd. Unfortunately, it was never made.

Did anyone see the Orson Welles’ film The Other Side of the Wind that came out after decades of limbo last year? If so is it worth watching?

Grease 3

I have no idea what happens in Grease 3, but sure, why not?

There's about a hundred historical dramas I wish somebody would do. Hollywood always goes to the same well, over and over and over. I would like to skip the next 20 Marie Antoinettes and somebody do a Robespierre.

Trick 2. It was supposed to start filming last year but it seems to be in limbo.

R68 Well it couldn’t have been Tori, she’s desperate for money and any work she can get. Perhaps Miss Coco Peru became a demanding and controlling holding out bitch and threw production off?

Looks like "The Bell Jar" is d.o.a. again. This is one of my favorite novels- why can't anyone make this an awesome movie??

I was going to mention the “Flora Plum” movie but R42 beat me to it. That was during Crowe’s hot period, after his injury it appears he stopped working out and got . . . Not hot.

R42 & R71 I always thought Flora Plun sounded interesting and its a shame it was never made even though I cannot stand Crowe (though he can be good).

A movie about Fatty Arbuckle has been bouncing around Hollywood since about 1982.

The Maria Callas biopic. Meryl was attached (of course). It was to be directed by Mike Nichols. Then after Nichols died, Meryl left. Noomi Rapace was attached. That was in 2015.

A film version of a novel called "The White Hotel" has been talked about for years, even though it's been said that the book is "unfilmable" or "unadaptable." The story of a semi-successful female opera singer in analysis with Sigmund Freud, the narrative is "told principally in the form of an erotic journal, letters between the female narrator and a fictionalized Sigmund Freud, and Freud's case history analysis of the narrator." A film version has never been made, but there have been attempts to create one that never came to fruition by Bernardo Bertolucci (with Barbra Streisand), David Lynch (with Isabella Rossellini), Simon Monjack (with Brittany Murphy), and Emir Kusturica (with Nicole Kidman). It's probably just as well. The book is considered quite "erotic" and the story doesn't lend itself well to a film adaptation. I think if a movie was made of it it would probably be pretty terrible.

Why can’t Barbra do Gypsy if she wants to? So many male actors are using CGI to appear younger in early scenes like big Oscar contender The Irishman. Judi Dench is almost always too old for her roles.

WHET " The Stooges Meet the Pirates " ?

^The Three Stooges Meet the Pirates

always amazed that other than the tv mini series "The Line of Beauty" none of Alan Holinghurst's novels ever made it to screen, big or small. Same for Edmund White.

MAME's BACK!

The Day the Clown Cried

[quote] Trick 2. It was supposed to start filming last year but it seems to be in limbo.

This is bullshit. Jim Fall acted like it was a done deal because he was trying to drum up interest in someone financing it, but it never happened. The closest they got was a staged reading of the script. And I say good riddance. The first one was a big enough POS. Who gives a fuck what happened to them? I can tell you- they're all working at the Gap.

R80 'Line of Beauty' was a huge flop and the critics hated it at the time, maybe the 80's are still too recent.

Remade in 50 years it would be seen as great literature and social commentary like Oscar Wilde or Evelyn Waugh are now.

I think W. Somerset Maugham's later work has also been ignored for too long (they've made The Painted Veil 3 fucking times)

and "Cakes and Ale" never as a film, but as a '70s bbc miniseries, which i haven't seen

A few years ago there was a movie that I think was filmed but couldn't be released due to a court battle. Does anyone remember what it was?

I guess the John Belushi biopic with Emile Hirsch and Miles Teller is dead.

I remember in the early to mid 2000s, there was supposed to be a movie about WWII WASP pilots and Cameron Diaz was supposed to play the lead role.

All of Barbra Streisand’s in the past 10 years. The Margaret Bourke-White project, the Catherine the Great project, and of course, Gypsy.

The Mirror Had Two Faces was a difficult shoot may have hurt her.

Years ago, I read that “Night Court” star Harry Anderson had optioned the rights to film the novel “Geek Love” about a circus sideshow family. Obviously, he never got it off the ground.

What was the name of the gay project about a straight white baseball player falling for his black teammate ?

R92 I don't think I heard about that one. On a similar note, there was the 2011 novel The Art of Fielding which had a subplot of a gay college baseball player having an affair with the closeted president of his college. It was optioned for series development by HBO in 2011 and then a couple of years back there was an article that was being adapted as a film.

Maybe that is what I was thinking about.

Whoever directed [italic]Judy[/italic] should do the Dusty Springfield movie.

Catherine Zeta-Jones in a blond wig, anyone?

[quote]Weren't they going to make a movie about the Watergate wives, "Dirty Tricks" or something. It was on imdb.com for awhile and disappeared. I think Meryl was attached.

I remember reading about that online or in a magazine.

At this point, [italic]A Confederacy of Dunces[/italic] should be an animated film to really do it justice.

Talks of a film adaptation of Wicked have been going on for years. Also, ABC wanted to do a non-musical miniseries based on the novel.

MASTER CLASS will be along soon. Until then enjoy there more than decade old still from a single scene I financed.

I recall there was some movie about a young Hilary Clinton called "Rodham" in development. I doubt that one will get ever made.

[quote] I recall there was some movie about a young Hilary Clinton called "Rodham" in development. I doubt that one will get ever made.

BUTT-HEAD : Huh-huh-huh-huh. "Rod"

BEAVIS: Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh. "Ham"

Vivien Leigh biopic with Natalie Dormer

[quote]Obviously, he never got it off the ground.

That's because he's firmly in it.

It seems that Rosemary Kennedy biopic starring Elisabeth Moss is stalled.

SOCK JOB starring Matthew Camp.

According to iMDB it's completed (years ago).

A friend I know who used to live in Hudson, NY saw it at Mark Allen's apartment and according to him it looks good, about an hour long, but is half-finished. I pressed him for every detail. He said it's "gross, hot and creepy" or something, and gave it 7 out of 10 stars, so far.

I've emailed Mark Allen SEVERAL times about its status and never gotten an answer.

I once asked Matthew Camp about it in an online q&a about a year ago and he didn't answer.

R91 When I read Geek Love years ago I pictured Geena Davis as the mom. No way could this be made into a film today. I love the book, though.

R105, is this the Mark Allen who got his start in radio in DFW, and later Sacramento, CA? I knew him briefly for a few months in TX when I dated a roommate of his. He was a nice guy, at least 30 + years ago.

Hippie Hippie Shake directed by Beeban Kidron. The trivia page from IMDb is an interesting read.

Wonder if it will ever see the light of day or if all prints have really been destroyed!

R107 Mark Allen former go go boy, activist, writer, WFMU guy, and (supposedly) filmmaker. Formerly NYC located, but yes I think originally from Texas.

The Blondie/Debbie Harry biopic. This has been discussed since the late 90's with everyone from Teresa Russell, Michelle Pfeiffer and later Kirsten Dunst (endorsed by Debbie herself) to play Debbie.

In the 00's I swear there was chatter online about an existing, titled Heart of Glass: The Story of Blondie. Thiw was around the time that Runaways biopic came out starring Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett. So it seemed to give it momentum. Now... nothing.

Plus her autobiography recently dropped. And she's said in interviews she now imagines Emily Meade from The Deuce playing her.

Will it ever happen?

Janis Joplin biopic that has had Brittany Murphy, P!nk and Amy Adams attached over the years.

Taylor Swift was supposed to play Joni Mitchell at some point.

I think there may have been a period twenty years ago where Lili Taylor was supposed to be Janis.

Wasn't Renee Zellweger considered or attached to play Janis Joplin at one point?

The Janis Joplin biopic that never got made has been mentioned upthread. Those said to have been slated to play her were Courtney Love, Amy Adams, Nina Arianda, Reese Witherspoon, Zooey Deschanel, Pink, Renee Zellweger, Lili Taylor, Brittany Murphy, Melissa Etheridge. I'm glad no movie about Janis Joplin has ever been made. What actress would do her justice? None that I can think of.

A heard about a Spiderman reboot that was stalled. Or maybe they made it?

Sex and the City 3.

All of Glenn’s projects.

Amy Adams? That would be a laugh if she finally won an Oscar playing the real Janis Joplin after Bette Midler lost one for playing a fake Janis Joplin.

[quote]A heard about a Spiderman reboot that was stalled. Or maybe they made it?

It was called "Spider-Man: Homecoming" and starred Tom Holland. It came out in 2017. Also, welcome back from your coma!

LOGAN'S RUN

This remake has been talked about heavily and passed hand-to-hand, studio-to-studio... since the last century! Writers and directors from Nicolas Winding Refn, Bryan Singer, Peter Craig, Simon Kinberg, Duncan Jones and many others have been attached, sometimes officially hired, then abandoned the project for one reason or another. Ryan Gosling was set to star at one point (when Winding Refn was new and hot).

Online fans of the cult film have come and gone from the various websites devoted to Logan's Run that have sprang up and died over the decades, discussing at length the various stages the remake has gone through. Endless! There was (is) a screenplay floating around online from the mid-00's I believe.

I hate remakes for the usual reasons, but admit I'm curious about how this one might turn out in the right hands.

"Whoever directed Judy should do the Dusty Springfield movie."

It was a good performance in a dull movie.

Jodie Foster was going to play Jean Seberg.

Now who in the hell wants a movie about Jean Seberg?

The D**ney project CHANTICLEER.

And I'm glad it fell through, because it would inevitably have ruined my enjoyment of Wangerin's BOOK OF THE DUN COW.

Monty Cliff bio - put on hold permanently.

"Now who in the hell wants a movie about Jean Seberg?"

If done right, a biopic about Jean Seberg could be very interesting. Plucked from obscurity to star in a major film ("Saint Joan" by Otto Preminger), the film and her performance flopped miserably. Her career might have ended right there, but she got the female lead in the French New Wave film "Breathless" and became a star. She was more popular in Europe; the French loved her gamine beauty and signature short hairstyle. Her film career went on for a while; she found work but her acting was rarely of any note. She married the much older director Romain Gary and had a son with him. She apparently had serious mental health problems and literally "went crazy" for a while and was confined in a hospital. Some said it was because of the death of her daughter, an infant when she died. During the 60s she got involved in radical politics (she got investigated by the FBI) and became involved with the Black Panthers, having a serious affair with one of them. Gossip columnists reported that the baby she was carrying was the child of the Black Panther (it wasn't). The whole situation of being smeared in press and losing the baby seemed to have sent her around the bend. She became more and more unstable and behaved stupidly, giving her money away to disreputable characters. "The biggest asshole in the world could be Jesus Christ to her", one friend commented. She ended up killing herself with a pill overdose; her body was found in a hermetically sealed car on a hot summer day. She'd been dead for several days, and her corpse was so decomposed she was almost unrecognizable. Quite a story, huh?

Matt Bomer was attached to the Monty Clift biopic at one point

The Jean Seberg biopic has already been made, starring DL fave Kristen Stewart!

The Gore Vidal film, starring Kevin Spacey as Gore, has been finished for over a year, but was pulled by Netflix due to Spacey's sex pest behavior that resonates in the film with Gore's pursuit of a beautiful young man in Italy.

The article linked is interesting. Michael Stulhbarg, who was the father in "Call Me By Your Name" plays Gore's long time companion and agent.

The Gore movie actually has a good cast and could be interesting...but no one wants to see Kevin creeping on young guys

A Little Life has been in talks, but it may be unfilmable. Maybe a mini series?

R92, that's "The Dreyfus Affair." As somebody pointed out above, it's pretty much irrelevant now.

The Anita Bryant biopic. In 2013 it was announced that Uma Thurman would play Anita but that never happened. Ashley Judd is currently attached to the project and it's scheduled for release next year, but IMDb says it's still in "pre-production" so I doubt that will happen.

Same goes for the East of Eden remake, which has been stuck in development hell for more than 15 years now. Jennifer Lawrence dropped out of the project but apparently Gary Ross is still involved with it.

SPACEBALLS 3: THE SEARCH FOR SPACEBALLS 2

Mel Brooks has been talking about doing this sequel to SPACEBALLS since the original came out. He still talks about it!

A lot of these bio pics don't get made because of music rights issues being really convoluted or just plain not available. It's a shame.

I've been waiting for the MEET THE FEEBLES sequel since the '90s. I thought it might happen after Jackson finished the LotR movies, but then he went on to make THE HOBBIT trilogy and other unrelated projects that completely diverge from his old original canon. I assume it's a no-go now.

I can see an Anita Hill type limited series happening on basic cable or streaming in a few years.

[quote]r102 Vivien Leigh biopic with Natalie Dormer

Was initially supposed to be filmed with Marisa Berenson, after the Anne Edwards biography came out in the 1970s.

A Walt Disney biopic could be good.

There is one but it was made by a small studio with a cast of unknowns and it was rather dull.

It would be too whitewashed if Disney did it and I doubt they would turn over enough material for another (large) studio to do it.

They should employ Dame Joan Plowright (Olivier's 3rd wife) as a consultant on any Vivienne Leigh biopic before she dies, she's become quite indiscreet as she's gotten older.

"Thy Neighbor's Wife" was optioned by United Artists for $2.5 million in 1979, before the book was even published (a little over $9 million in today's dollars). It was a record amount for film rights at that time. They suggested that they were going to make three movies out of the project, the first of which would be written and directed by William Friedkin. No movie was ever made.

"Good Morning Vietnam" was supposed to have had a sequel. Mark Frost wrote a sequel screenplay, "Good Morning, Chicago." The film would have featured Robin Williams, reprising his role as Cronauer, as a journalist at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. The project was eventually scrapped, due to disagreements between Williams, Barry Levinson, and The Walt Disney Company, over the film's direction.

Another Robin Williams movie, "Mrs. Doubtfire", released in 1993, was supposed to have had a sequel. The project was talked about for years but WIlliams said that despite a lot of script rewrites nothing worked: "They could never write it. They kept trying and it doesn't work... because at the end of the first one they reveal who Mrs. Doubtfire is. So it ends up being her for five minutes and then she transitions into some old Russian woman. They so far can't crack it." Finally, in April 2014, it was announced that a sequel was in development at 20th Century Fox. Williams and the director Chris Columbus were expected to return, and Elf screenwriter David Berenbaum was hired to write the script. However, after Williams' death in August 2014, plans for a sequel were cancelled.

There was an estate-sanctioned Jeff Buckley biopic, Mystery White Boy, in the works around 2011. Reeve Carney was going to play Jeff, and Patricia Arquette was cast as his mother. It never materialised, although another biopic (Greetings from Tim Buckley) was released the following year.

There's a lost Pixar film, Newt, that was never completed. It was ditched in favour of Inside Out.

About the Wicked movie/tv show, I remember reading that ABC had it in development and suddenly changed gears and used the rights to do the horrible Oz stuff in Once Upon a Time. Selma Hayek's production company was attached at one point, and it was going to be a limited series.

The movie version of the musical is set for release December 2021, opposite Avatar 3. If either happen. They are waiting to see what happens with Cats, if anything, before moving forward with the project.

Another one is the House of Leaves series which Amazon teased a few years ago. It never happened, and the author decided to write his own pilot of what he would have done if a series got made. Since that fake pilot script was so popular, he released a new, revised, pilot and 2 additional episodes and is open to someone picking it up for production. Look up Mark Z. Danielewski if you are interested.

Scorsese's bio-pic of Gershwin starring Robert De Niro.

Bette Midler as Lotte Lenya

I saw THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, poster above. Can I recommend it? No. But it's worth a peek for it's surreal Hollywood party scenes (with cameos by Huston and Bogdanovich) and a handsome, buff and nude young man pursuing Welles' mistress through arty landscapes and cinematography. Oh, it has a swingin' Michel Legrand jazz score that is really quite exciting at times!

I just hope they keep remaking LITTLE WOMEN!

R142 I remember tons of articles about that movie and I sort of recall that James Franco was considered at one point to play Buckley.

The documentary and book The Woman Who Wasn't There which was about 9/11 faker Tania Head was optioned for a drama film years ago. I doubt it will ever get made.

I'm curious if they'll ever make the announced Guillermo del Toro remake of "Nightmare Alley." At first they were going to have Leo di caprio in the Tyrone Power part, then Bradley Cooper. I'd love to see it if it can get made.

"Dirty Tricsk" which someone mentioned above was going to be about the women of Watergate, and the cast was going to be amazing: Meryl Streep as Martha Mitchell, Jill Clayburgh as Pat Nixon, Gwyneth Paltrow as Mo Dean, Annette Bening as Helen Thomas. It never got made, and of course, Clayburgh died.

R150 Hopefully Nightmare Alley won't get made.

They won't make The Front Runner for a long time, if they ever do. A film about the sexual relationship between a coach and his star athlete would not cut it in the #MeToo era.

[quote]r149 The documentary and book The Woman Who Wasn't There which was about 9/11 faker Tania Head was optioned for a drama film years ago.

In all seriousness, this could be a good role for Chrissy Metz.

[quote]In all seriousness, this could be a good role for Chrissy Metz.

Is that 9/11 faker woman a great big fat person? Because those are the only roles Chrissy is suitable for.

Toni Erdmann remake, which was supposed to star Kristen Wiig and Jack Nicholson, with a script written by DL fav Lens Dunham. That was like the worst idea for a remake ever so I'm glad it never happened.

Aborted: Neill Blomkamp's aborted Alien sequel which was to bring back Ripley and Hicks.

Stalled/Abandoned?: Martin Scorsese's SCTV documentary. The event was filmed in Toronto (I attended) in 2018 but there has been nothing - NOTHING - said about it almost two years. It's either been quietly cancelled or something, or someone, is holding up the editing.

R155 There are a number of proposed remake of great foreign language films over the years that never emerged thank goodness. Some include: Tie Me Up Tie Me Down (with Kim Basinger), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (with Jane Fonda), The Host (directed by Ron Howard), Cache (directed by Ron Howard).

I think the Tania Head hoax story would work better as limited series like The Act on Hulu.

R156 Wow! I'm an SCTV junkie and I'm not sure if I somehow never heard about this, or did... and forgot about it in my old age. LOL! Sounds great. God, I hope they can pull it together. You've gotten me really curious.

There was supposedly a big screen adaptation of Dallas in the works with John Travolta as JR, and Jennifer Lopez as Sue Ellen. But it got shelved in favor of the tv sequel series.

Wasn't there supposed to be a film version of "Have Gun ,Will Travel " with John Travolta playing the Richard Boone role.

Melissa McCarthy proved her drama skills with CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?, I think she would be good as Tania Head.

yeah but why would she play what basically amounts to the same role?

The X-Men film Gambit was in development hell for years. It didn't help that Channing Tatum was attached, since he doesn't really have the star power to carry a film. It looks like it's officially dead now.

A lot of the Fox/Sony owned Marvel properties are currently in limbo because of the success of Marvel Studios' MCU. The Sinister Six movie has been rumored for over a decade and talk about it moving forward started again last year after the success of Venom. Since on of the titular Six is Mysterio, and he is now canon in the MCU, I think that's now a dead property.

It's a shame r159 because they were able to get everybody from the main cast - aside from the late John Candy of course. And it was fun to hear from all of them. They seemed to have a great time, even Rick Moranis who has retired. I don't know what happened.

It was filmed downtown Toronto at the Elgin Theatre. Martin Scorsese, the director, came out at the end to a standing ovation from the audience. There was a beautiful tribute to John Candy.

The only sign of trouble was warm-up comic Ron James went on a 15-minute rant about Trump to the displeasure of the audience.

R163 I agree, it would be the almost same role as Can You Ever Forgive Me. If a docudrama about Tania Head was made at least five or six years ago, McCarthy would have been great in the role back then.

White trash pick, but here goes: the cheap ridiculous 12 ROUNDS franchise (starring pro-wrestlers in lead roles) was supposed to continue for four or five movies at least (in the tradition of FAST & FURIOUS and THE MARINE), but ended at Part Three.

They never continued because the leading man of the final instalment decided to deservedly screw over then leave the entertainment company for which he worked and under which the movies are produced just a couple of years after his film came out. Jon Good did something really heroic that day and spared us all four more hours of cinematic dreck.

Of course this didn’t deter WWE film studios, who simply moved back to their MARINE cash-cow and fittingly cast Real World alum Mike ‘Miz’ Mizanin as their new star for four new pictures. There are currently eight films and counting in that franchise.

“Women of Watergate” was proposed. I think Meryl Streep was set to star in it. I’m not sure which part she would’ve played, though. If it ever happens, the Martha Mitchell role will steal the movie.

What happened to that proposed Anita Bryant movie?

The Sopranos prequel. Haven’t heard anything about it since last year.

Whatever happened to the movie version of The Greatest American Hero?

Gandofino’s son was cast and that was the last I heard about it.

R150 Recent info on Del Toro's Nightmare Alley

Wasn't Uma Thurman supposed to play Anita Bryant in the proposed film version that r169 mentioned?

I think The Sopranos movie was already shot.

R164 The Sinister Six movie's never going to get made because Disney has a problem with making genuinely evil villains, probably because characters who are truly pieces of shit don't sell toys. They re-did Ultron's design and cast James Spader against Whedon's wishes because they were worried his Terminator-style vision would be too scary for kids and wouldn't sell toys. Hell, they even tried making Thanos sympathetic, and he's literally established in the film as a genocidal maniac. There's no way they'd make an all-villain lead film, and if they did, they'd just do what Sony did to Venom and try to turn them into superheroes somehow.

R174, yes, Uma Thurman was to portray Anita Bryant for an HBO film. I think it was announced about 5 years ago, but likely it was shelved.

The good news is Ashley Judd was cast as Anita Bryant. Principal photography be in fall, 2019. It’s perfect casting! Neil Patrick Harris will star in it, as well.

Remakes, retellings, prequels, sequels and trilogies of Forbidden Planet have been discussed, but gone nowhere. I'd love to see any of these, but suspect it would be difficult to meet or exceed the bar set by the original movie.

Good news R40! It now stars RuPaul and drops on Netflix on January 10th!

The Sopranos prequel will be out in 2020z Alessandro Nivola is in the Sopranos prequel and seems thrilled to be playing an east coast Italian-American.

Due to covid-19 a bunch of projects will end up on this list.

I read somewhere that if some movies had release dates but not released they could be considered for Oscars.

Everyone cross your fingers. This could be my dear dear friend Glennie`s big year.