12 Highly Anticipated Movies That Ended Up In Development Hell

Earlier this week over on Twitter, a tweet from 2021 by actress-writer-director Julia Marchese began gaining more recent attention from Film Twitter.

Hey #filmtwitter - what's a movie that fell apart in the development stages that you wish would have come to fruition?

— ⭐ Julia Marchese ⭐ (@juliacmarchese) November 3, 2021

If you’re someone who loves movies and pop culture, you also love the news and anticipation that comes with the announcement of a new and upcoming project that features some of your favorite artists. Especially if that upcoming project is an adaptation of a work that you know and love, and can’t wait to see brought to life on the big screen. But sometimes, those plans fall through, either because of budgetary reasons, creative differences over the script, or because the way things are being run at a movie studio suddenly becomes a massive catastrof-ck due to a changing of the guard. Despite the disappointment that comes with learning that something you were truly looking forward to seeing in theaters has ended up in Development Hell, it’s still sometimes nice to wonder “What if?,” and think of how nice it would’ve been for certain movies to reach the finish line as originally intended.

As for some of the responses to Julia’s query, both old and new? Here are a few of them.

Spider-Man: directed by James Cameron

There are many comic book adaptations that fans have wished and hoped for, and a Spider-Man movie written and directed by James Cameron has been high on that list for a long time. When I wrote about director Sam Raimi’s version of Spider-Man for its twentieth anniversary, I touched upon the fact that Cameron came very close to being the one in the director’s chair to adapting everyone’s favorite Web-Head. However, there were legal and financial issues that prevented the film from getting the green light, so it never happened.

…Cameron was approached about making a Spider-Man movie, and even provided a long and detailed script treatment of what he was interested in doing. It involved Spidey going up against Electro and Sandman, Spidey and Mary-Jane Watson having sex on the Brooklyn Bridge (yes, really), and the final battle taking place on top of the World Trade Center (If you want to read it for yourself, Google is your friend). Leonardo DiCaprio was considered by Cameron for the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and Robyn Lively, Maggie Smith, R. Lee Ermey, Lance Henriksen, and Michael Biehn were all considered for the roles of Mary-Jane, Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson, Electro, and Sandman. And there was also talk of having Arnold Schwarzenegger play Doctor Octopus.

When Cameron was interviewed by Premiere magazine after the monumental success of Titanic, he was asked if he would still be interested in directing Spider-Man if and when the rights issues were cleared up. Cameron’s response?

“Here’s where I am philosophically. I’m 44 years old, I make a movie every two or three years, it should be something that I create. I’ve always done that, with the exception of Aliens. The Terminator was my creation, so were Titanic and The Abyss. With the amount of time and energy that I put into a film, it shouldn’t be somebody else’s superhero. I don’t want to labor in somebody else’s house.”

The Stand: directed by George A. Romero

Shortly after completing production for his film Martin, writer-director George A. Romero met horror novelist Stephen King, and the two of them discussed the possibility of working on a project together. One of those projects was an adaptation of King’s 1978 novel The Stand, in which a powerful virus wipes out the majority of civilization in America, and results in the survivors crossing paths and clashing with one another in a battle of good vs. evil. Their screenplay ended up being 200 pages long, which would require a large budget, a three-hour-long runtime (the original novel contains 823 pages, and the uncut version published in 1990 has 1,153 pages), and not surprisingly, it included content that would certainly guarantee an R rating for the film. All of which prevented things from going any further. Romero and King would go on to collaborate on the 1982 film Creepshow, and in 1994, The Stand was adapted into a six-hour miniseries for ABC, starring Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Jamey Sheridan, Rob Lowe, and Ruby Dee. (It was adapted once more as a miniseries for Paramount Plus in 2020, and starred James Marsden, Amber Heard, Alexander Skårsgard, Ezra Miller, and Whoopi Goldberg.)

To The White Sea: directed by Joel and Ethan Coen

To The White Sea is a 1993 novel by Deliverance author James Dickey, and is about an American tail-gunner who parachutes from his burning airplane into Tokyo, Japan during World War II, and must fight for survival the moment his feet touch the land. The Coen brothers had been attached to adapting the novel for several years, with Brad Pitt in the lead role. But the $80 million budget, as well as the script containing very little dialogue, proved to be insurmountable, despite the Coens achieving some of their biggest successes with No Country for Old Men and True Grit.

Star Trek: directed by Quentin Tarantino

When it was first announced that Quentin Tarantino and J.J. Abrams had discussed the very likely possibility of Tarantino writing and directing a Star Trek movie, Trekkies couldn’t help but respond with “Fascinating!” upon learning of this news, while also asking a few questions. Would this movie be made with the same cast members from the more recent Star Trek films? (Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldaña, Karl Urban, etc.) What kind of story would Tarantino have in mind for this? Would this be the first-ever R-rated Star Trek film, and one where Tarantino would still find an excuse to have a character or two drop the N-word? According to The Revenant screenwriter Mark L. Smith, who was approached about writing the film with Tarantino, he had this to say when interviewed in 2021 on the Bulletproof Screenwriting podcast.

…Smith, who was tasked with writing a “Star Trek” film script based on Tarantino’s idea while Tarantino was busy finishing post-production and touring the world for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

“[J.J. Abrams’ production company, Bad Robot] called me and said, ‘Hey, are you up for it? Do you want to go? Quentin wants to hook up.’ And I said, ‘Yeah,’” the screenwriter said. “And that was the first day I met Quentin, in the room and he’s reading a scene that he wrote and it was this awesome, cool gangster scene, and he’s acting it out and back and forth. I told him, I was so mad I didn’t record it on my phone. It would be so valuable. It was amazing.”

Tarantino intended to bring a “Pulp Fiction” vibe to “Star Trek” with an idea that was a largely earthbound story set in a 1930s gangster setting. Tarantino’s pitch appeared to take inspiration from “A Piece of the Action,” the 17th episode of the second season of “Star Trek: The Original Series.” The installment, which aired in 1968, followed the Enterprise crew as they visit a planet with an Earth-like 1920s gangster culture.

But in 2019, Tarantino stated that he would no longer be directing the project if it continued to go forward.

“I think they might make that movie, but I just don’t think I’m going to direct it,” Tarantino tells Deadline, a more definitive answer than when he told Consequence of Sound in December that he was “steering away” from the project. “It’s a good idea. They should definitely do it and I’ll be happy to come in and give them some notes on the first rough cut.”

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron: directed by Patty Jenkins

In December of 2020, it was announced that Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins had been hired by Disney and Lucasfilm to direct a Star Wars film about the starfighter pilots of the Rebel Alliance. And this clearly meant a lot to Jenkins, judging from this brief video that was shot about the project, and about her involvement with it.

Like too many other Star Wars feature films, Rogue Squadron has experienced numerous hurdles on its way to production. In November 2021, it was announced that due to scheduling conflicts with other projects that Jenkins was working on, the film would be delayed. The following year, Rogue Squadron was removed from Disney’s release schedule before being shelved entirely. Some people suspected that the polarizing response to Wonder Woman 1984 resulted in Disney refusing to go forward with Jenkins making Rogue Squadron for them, while others pointed out that this is another example of the two studios being more focused on making new Star Wars stories for Disney Plus than they are about making them for movie theaters. As I originally wrote when discussing another highly-anticipated project by Jenkins that will unfortunately never see the light of day, Jenkins isn’t the first director to have her upcoming Star Wars project altered or postponed by Disney and Lucasfilm, and something tells me she won’t be the last.

Little Scarlet film adaptation

One of the best, and most underappreciated films of the 1990s, was director Carl Franklin’s Devil in a Blue Dress. Based on Walter Mosley’s novel of the same name, it starred Dustin’s favorite actor Denzel Washington as private eye Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, and Don Cheadle in a scene-stealing performance as his best friend/sidekick, Mouse. Despite the rave reviews it had received from critics, it wasn’t a box-office success, which dashed any hopes of more Easy Rawlins novels being adapted for the big screen with Washington and Cheadle. However, it was announced in 2006 that HBO had bought the rights to one of Mosley’s Easy Rawlins novels titled Little Scarlet, and that Jeffrey Wright and Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) would play Easy and Mouse, though it hadn’t been decided on which actor would play which character. Sadly, there has been no other news about the project, though there continue to be rumblings about other studios and directors wanting to develop their own Easy Rawlins adaptations for television.

FYI (and I apologize in advance for name-dropping): I briefly crossed paths with Yasiin Bey in 2007 when I saw him in the office building of my then-job in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn. We were both waiting for the elevator to arrive, and when I realized who it was, I said hello and the two of us shook hands as I told him how much I loved his work, and how I was looking forward to seeing him in Little Scarlet. He appreciated it and said that HBO was just working to get the project off the ground and get it going. Once we got off the elevator and hit the lobby, we bid each other farewell, he hopped on his skateboard, and kicked pushed his way down the street. (And before you “Well, actually…” me, I’m fully aware that Lupe Fiasco, and not Yasiin Bey, is the one responsible for that track, but I still couldn’t help making that reference.)

The Long Walk: directed by Frank Darabont

One director who has been consistently great at adapting the novels of Stephen King is writer-director-sworn archnemesis of AMC Frank Darabont. His first King adaptation was The Shawshank Redemption in 1994, followed by The Green Mile in 1999, and The Mist in 2007. (I saw The Mist in theaters with one of my best friends, and to this day, she is royally f-cking pissed about the gut-punch of an ending Darabont created for the film.) For his next film version of King’s work, Darabont wanted it to be The Long Walk, which was published in 1979 under King’s pseudonym, Richard Bachman. From StephenKing.com:

In the near future, where America has become a police state, one hundred boys are selected to enter an annual contest where the winner will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life. The game is simple - maintain a steady walking pace of four miles per hour without stopping. Three warnings, and you’re out - permanently.

Darabont purchased the rights to the novel, and stated his desire to make the film version of The Long Walk a low-budget one that would be, in his words, “weird, existential, and self-contained.” But he never got around to filming The Long Walk, and when his rights to the film expired, New Line Cinema announced that they were planning their own adaptation with Zodiac writer James Vanderbilt and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark director André Øvredal. So far, there has been no further news about this adaptation, either.

At the Mountains of Madness: directed by Guillermo del Toro

For the past few years, there have been two undeveloped projects on director Guillermo del Toro’s wish list that have made his fans wish for a winning Powerball ticket so they could write him a blank check, and give him permission to finally cut loose. One of them is Hellboy III, which would conclude the story del Toro was telling in Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army. The other is his adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s 1936 novella At The Mountains of Madness. For those who are unfamiliar with what it’s about?

The story details the events of a disastrous expedition to Antarctica in September 1930, and what is found there by a group of explorers led by the narrator, Dr. William Dyer of Miskatonic University. Throughout the story, Dyer details a series of previously untold events in the hope of deterring another group of explorers who wish to return to the continent. These events include the discovery of an ancient civilization older than the human race, and the realization of Earth’s past told through various sculptures and murals.

Considering del Toro’s output, and his love of monsters, At the Mountains of Madness would be the perfect sandbox for the writer-director to play in. But of course, there were obstacles. Warner Bros. had concerns about the script del Toro had written with Matthew Robbins, which prevented them from financing it. According to del Toro: “The studio is very nervous about the cost and it not having a love story or a happy ending, but it’s impossible to do either in the Lovecraft universe.” And despite James Cameron joining the project as a producer, and Tom Cruise expressing his interest in starring in the film, Universal Pictures didn’t want to make the film, due to the film’s big budget, and del Toro’s insistence that the film have an R rating instead of a PG-13. When del Toro recently signed a deal with Netflix to develop projects with them, he made it clear that At the Mountains of Madness was one of the projects that would hopefully and finally become a reality, though it would be a slightly smaller film to make it easier on the budget.

Men In Black/21 Jump Street crossover

Two of the funniest and most successful franchises to come from Columbia Pictures/Sony Entertainment have been the Men In Black trilogy starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, and the 21 Jump Street films starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill. When Sony’s computers were hacked in 2014, it was revealed that there was a planned crossover between the two series of films, and that writer-producers Phil Miller and Christopher Miller would be involved with the project known as MiB 23. The revelation had whetted the appetites of some fans, but the project never took off, due to Hill, Lord, and Miller expressing their concerns that MiB 23 would end up as the kind of film that the Jump Street films were making fun of, and that it would only have a bad impact on both franchises. And all of this was before we discovered what Jonah Hill is like as a boyfriend, and that he’s an even bigger dick than we originally thought.

Daredevil: directed by Joe Carnahan

The 2003 film version of Daredevil, which starred Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Colin Farrell, the late Michael Clarke Duncan, and Joe Pantoliano, was a box-office hit, though the reviews from critics and fans weren’t as glowing as Marvel Entertainment and the studio formerly known as 20th Century Fox had hoped for. (The director’s cut of the film, however, has gotten a much better reception.) There were no Daredevil sequels, due to Affleck’s refusal to return for the role, and since then, we’ve seen the Disney/Netflix version of the Man Without Fear, with Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil, who reprised his role in Spider-Man: No Way Home and in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and who will be returning in the upcoming Disney Plus series Daredevil: Born Again. But before Cox suited up as the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, writer-director Joe Carnahan had been approached about rebooting the character for another film. In 2012, Carnahan presented a sizzle reel of footage (which included panels from Daredevil comics, as well as scenes from the 2003 film version, and from 1970s films like The Warriors, Serpico, and Taxi Driver) to show Fox what he had in mind for his version of Daredevil, and that it would be a darker and grittier tale set in New York City circa 1973.

Carnahan has said via Twitter that Fox was impressed with his pitch, but when they lost the rights to the character, there was nothing else to be done.

Janis Joplin biopic

A biopic about the late and legendary singer has been a film that many writers and directors have attempted to tackle, but with no success. And there have been numerous actresses whose names have been considered to play the role of Janis Joplin: Amy Adams, Courtney Love, Reese Witherspoon, Pink, Lili Taylor, and Zooey Deschanel. And one actress who was attached to play Janis Joplin was the late, great Brittany Murphy. Recently, some brief footage was uncovered that showed Murphy’s audition for the role, in which she performed “Me and Bobby McGee.”

The Batman: directed by Ben Affleck

I’ve written many an article for Pajiba about the DCEU, and about its fans who remain disappointed and furious that the cinematic universe originally started by director Zack Snyder will soon cease to exist. Much of that fury and disappointment comes from projects that were originally discussed and planned, but were stopped in their tracks due to interference and incompetence from Warner Bros. One of those projects that fans wanted, and are still clamoring for, is Ben Affleck’s solo Batman film, which would feature the Caped Crusader going up against the ruthless mercenary known as Deathstroke (played by Joe Manganiello), who has a personal vendetta against Batman, and who declares all-out war on him after learning his true identity from Lex Luthor at the end of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. When Affleck was still attached to the film, he even shared some early footage of Deathstroke, suited up and looking to unleash hell.

The solo Batfleck movie never happened for several reasons: Affleck’s experience in filming Justice League reshoots with Joss Whedon were extremely unpleasant for reasons I’ve previously discussed, which ruined his enthusiasm to continue playing Batman. He also realized that directing, co-writing, and starring in a Batman film was too damn much for any one person to handle, and that staying on the project would affect his sobriety. So Affleck stepped away from the film, though he has reprised his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the Knightmare epilogue for Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and in The Flash. After it was announced that Affleck would no longer go forward with his solo Batman film, Warner Bros. approached Matt Reeves to direct and co-write The Batman, with Robert Pattinson as the Dark Knight Detective. Though its critical acclaim and box office success (and Affleck saying that his sobriety takes precedence over returning to the role of Batman for an entire feature film) still hasn’t stopped the worst and most persistent DCEU fans from demanding the Batman film with Batfleck vs. Deathstroke they were hoping for.

Justice League: Mortal: directed by George Miller

Whether you loved or hated Zack Snyder’s Justice League, it’s impossible to deny that the thought of Mad Max: Fury Road director George Miller helming a Justice League film of his very own is an amazing fantasy, and one that would be glorious to witness on the big screen. And this world came very close to seeing this happen, when Miller signed on to direct Justice League: Mortal in 2007, and was given a budget of $220 million to make it happen. The actors and characters who would be involved with this adaptation, which would’ve been inspired by the comics storylines Justice League: Tower of Babel, OMAC Project, and Superman: Sacrifice? D.J. Cotrona was cast as Superman, Armie Hammer as Batman (I know, readers, I know), Megan Gale as Wonder Woman (though the role was originally offered to Jessica Biel and Shannyn Sossamon), Common as Green Lantern, Hugh Keays-Byrne (who played the Toecutter in Mad Max and Immortan Joe in Mad Max: Fury Road) as Martian Manhunter, Adam Brody as The Flash/Barry Allen, Teresa Palmer as Talia al Ghul, Zoe Kazan as Iris West, the late Anton Yelchin as Wally West, and Jay Baruchel as Maxwell Lord. (Aquaman would also appear in the film, but no casting had happened yet for that role.) The 2007 WGA strike, combined with the economy turning to liquid sh-t in 2008, caused production to be paused. The delays, along with several other headaches regarding filming locations and cast members having to be released from their contracts, put a permanent kibosh on Justice League: Mortal. It also didn’t help that 2008 saw the release of The Dark Knight, which made over a billion dollars at the box office, and convinced Warner Bros. to focus on films with individual members of the Justice League, and that more than one version of Batman wasn’t needed at the moment.

There are many, many other projects in Development Hell that also deserve to be discussed (which includes Alejandro Jodorowsky’s version of Dune, Ridley Scott’s adaptation of the late Cormac McCarthy’s novel Blood Meridian, and the live-action version of Batman Beyond with either Clint Eastwood or Michael Keaton as older Bruce Wayne), but for now, I’m just going to end it here.