A plotline from a “Curb your Enthusiasm” episode has Jon Hamm following Larry David around because he has a “Larry David” type character he’s playing in a movie and wants to learn how to play it. At the end of the episode I think, Larry asks Jon whatever happened to the movie he was working on about him and Jon says that it tested terribly and there was no way to fix it so the film was scrapped… or something to that effect.
My question is, what happens to movies that test so badly they can’t be fixed and are therefore never released publicly? Do they sit on a shelf or in a vault somewhere never to be seen again? I assume that it can never see the light of day since the director and actors wouldn’t want a terrible film floating around they are attached to and that’s probably written into their contract. Does this ever really happen, and how does it work?
It definitely happens. One famous case was The Day the Clown Cried, directed, written and starring Jerry Lewis and I think considered awful by those who saw it.
It can happen in situations where someone has use-or-lose rights and just throws something together to meet the deadline (e.g. the Roger Corman Fantastic Four movie).
Infamously, famed schlockmeister Roger Corman had the film rights to Marvel’s Fantastic Four back in the 90s, and had to film a movie by a certain deadline to retain those rights, but didn’t have a budget even he considered adequate, so he filmed a movie that was intended to be just barely sufficient to be legally considered a “motion picture” for purposes of his contract with Marvel, but which he never intended to actually release. He apparently didn’t tell anyone involved in the production that, though - the cast and crew all apparently thought they were making a genuine if low-budget movie. The movie was never officially released, but bootleg copies leaked out and have been making the rounds of comic book and sci-fi conventions ever since.
I’ve never seen it, but by most accounts, it was actually half-way decent, if you take into account the shoestring budget, and more faithful to the source material than the later, officially released, big budget films.
True, as far as I’ve heard (though I haven’t seen either one) it’s more watchable that (at least) the 2015 movie*.
*My favorite comment on the 2015 movie is (from memory) “If your version of an iconic superhero origin story looks like a Robot Chicken parody, you’re doing it wrong.”
I’ve heard this was done with Hellraiser 9. The first 4 films had theatrical releases. The next 4 were straight to video/cable. Number 9 was made on almost no budget and never intended for release.
There’s a movie that I’d love to see somehow, but it appears that whoever owns the rights to it has no intent of releasing it (and maybe has trashed it). It’s a film called Anywhere But Here (which has no relation to any other movie of that name). It was apparently made in the late 1980s or early 1990s. It was apparently finished but not released because the filmmakers couldn’t persuade any distributor to take it. It’s interesting to me because it has a song on its soundtrack (called “Baggage”) by my favorite singer, Eva Cassidy. She also has a small part in it. If I remember correctly from what I’ve read about it, it was filmed in Ohio. The filmmakers released a soundtrack album for it, despite never releasing the movie itself. There was nobody remotely famous in it, so it’s hard to believe that anyone in it would object to its release.
Speaking of BTTF, the movie Teen Wolf was famously never going to get released - then BTTF made Fox a household name and they milked it for a sequel and long-running MTV series.
I’d guess it’s harder to bury/easier to release stuff now, with so many outlets starved for content.
In 1990, a sitcom called Heil Honey, I’m Home!, was produced for British TV. It was a style parody of '50s American sitcoms a la I Love Lucy that featured Hitler and Eva Braun as a newlywed couple getting into hijinks with their Jewish neighbors. 8 episodes were produced, but only the pilot episode, in which Hitler has to invite his boss (Neville Chamberlain) over for dinner, was aired before the series was cancelled amidst massive backlash and the other 7 episodes were destroyed.
This is my first “proper post” and I get to pick nits already! Hooray!
The rights were actually owned by a German company since 1983. They hired Corman to make the film when they were unable to get an extension for the rights in 1992. Lots of info on Wikipedia.
There’s a 2015 documentary called “Doomed” about the film. At the time of this posting you can see both on YouTube.
I’ve not seen either, but I enjoyed Red Letter Media talking about the Corman film. The two actually released super hero flicks they also watched compared pretty badly to Corman’s FF. For one, a Captain America in which his main super power seems to be tricking people out of their cars.
I’ve had a DVD of the Corman FF for 20+ years. The only thing wrong with it is the same thing that’s wrong with the three that followed. Dr. Doom. That character is unfilmable.
Welcome. And, yes, you’re right. I was going purely on memory - always a dangerous thing to do.
[Again, going purely on memory:] That was the infamous 1970s TV movie* with Reb Brown as Cap, and Ned Beatty(!) as a reporter that Cap tricks into getting out of his car so he can steal it. Also featuring a clear plexiglass shield that he mounted on the front of his motorbike, which visibly bent in the wind. It was really bad, even by the standards of the time.
*I think there were two or three of them in the series? Too lazy to Google to confirm.
Ned Beatty and his car were in the 1990 version starring Matt Sanlinger (the one with the Italian Red Skull) The clear shield and the motorcycle were from the two 1979 TV movies with Reb Brown.
