# Good movie concepts that got trapped in Production Hell **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 18, 2006, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199 "2006-05-18T00:37:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/1 "2006-05-18T00:37:49Z")
Occasionally you’ll hear about a movie being made that you can’t wait to see. So you wait . . . and wait . . . Filmmaking is such a costly and complicated business that there are any number of factors that can kill a promising concept, or at least put it into indefinite coldsleep. Two recent examples: _The Last Unicorn_ – [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last\_Unicorn#New\_film\_development](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Unicorn#New_film_development) _Princess of Mars_ – [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A\_Princess\_of\_Mars\_(film)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Princess_of_Mars_%28film%29) (This one probably **will** get made but the project is now on its third director.) Do you know of any others? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/2 "2006-05-18T01:03:54Z")
I remember hearing about the new Superman movie about five years ago, so that probably counts. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/3 "2006-05-18T01:29:33Z")
There’s [a thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=371751&highlight=atlas+shrugged) running at the moment discussing the film version of _Atlas Shrugged_. It seems to have been “on its way” for a very long time. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/4 "2006-05-18T02:15:56Z")
I’m not sure if they will mke good movies, but the His Dark Materials trilogy just switched directors again (back to Chris Weitz) [http://www.bridgetothestars.net/](http://www.bridgetothestars.net/) at least PP likes the script [http://www.philip-pullman.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=126](http://www.philip-pullman.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=126) Brian ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/5 "2006-05-18T02:19:43Z")
**Watchmen** : it was announced as a film back in the early 80s, and is still being developed. Several scripts and directors (including Terry Gilliam) have worked on it, but still nothing. The IMDB lists it as still being in production, so that’s coming up on 20 years. **Neuromancer** was sold to the movies about when the book came out in 1984; we’re still waiting. **Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace** was listed by Lucasfilm as being in production almost from when **Return of the Jedi** was released. However, Lucas really didn’t do any work on it until the late 90s. Terry Gilliam’s **The Man Who Killed Don Quixote** is in development limbo – everything is owned by its insurance company – but if money does come along, he would be ready to do it. The story is told in **Lost in La Mancha**. Orson Welles’s **Othello** took over three years to complete (a very long time back then) because he kept running out of money and had to take acting jobs to raise funds. **Hotel Imperial** – while not all that long in terms of time, it had its own sort of hell, going through three leading ladies, at least two directors, dozens of scripts, and nearly killing its leading man, Ray Milland. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/6 "2006-05-18T02:33:03Z")
Back in the early 1980’s somebody wanted to film _A Confederacy of Dunces_ with John Belushi. Didn’t happen, and I’ve occasionally heard about a new project, most recently with Phillip Seymour Hoffman discussed as a possibility to place Ignatius. (I think he’d be great.) It should be filmable. For years I’ve heard about plans to film a new movie version of Richard Matheson’s great novel _I Am Legend_. First I heard about it with Schwarzenneger involved (which would probably have been a bad idea) and then as – no lie – a comedy with Will Smith. (Oh, Christ. I just checked IMDB, and that last one is in fact announced for 2007. No! Wait. . . it’s listed under “Drama”; so maybe they’re not going to screw it up. But the director has only done music videos and _Constantine_. Goddamnit!) ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/7 "2006-05-18T02:37:09Z")
Sorry; make that “Schwarzenegger”. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/8 "2006-05-18T02:55:09Z")
_Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_ was talked about becoming a movie from almost the beginning of the first book’s popularity. Even before the BBC-TV miniseries of the 80s, if I’m remembering correctly. And each time a new book was added to the “trilogy,” the rumors, talk, and “insider information” got spalshed about a lot, esp as the internet took off. And finally, it was filmed. Kind of a gnaB giB when it came out, if you ask me. So what was that? 25 or more years? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/9 "2006-05-18T03:00:14Z")
If you’re going for some kind of record, I’d say the longest wait between the source material and the adaptation goes to _The Ten Commandments_. What’s that, about 3000 years? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/10 "2006-05-18T03:06:46Z")
Okay, smarty! _History of the World, Part I_ - 4.2 billion years. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/11 "2006-05-18T03:10:07Z")
Any cosmology documentary ever–13.2 billion years or so. Beat that! ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/12 "2006-05-18T03:11:50Z")
[Universe](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0054429/) - somewhere between 12 to 20 billion years\* - depends on who you ask.\*\* \*\* some might even say 6K yrs. \*\*\* \*\*\* they’re crazy, but oh well… \*\*\*\* \*\*\*\* what? ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/13 "2006-05-18T06:20:29Z")
**Good Omens,** stuck in Terry Gilliam’s fertile imagination for how long now? ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/14 "2006-05-18T06:35:26Z")
Isn’t **Ghostbusters 3** one of these? ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/15 "2006-05-18T07:18:20Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > I’m not sure if they will mke good movies, but the His Dark Materials trilogy just switched directors again (back to Chris Weitz) Last I’d heard—a few months back—hadn’t they been planning on doing the stories faithfully…except for cutting out all the anti-christianity subtext? [mind boggled smiley] That’s as bad as Superman fighting polar bears with his black gay robot buddy, just in a different way. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/16 "2006-05-18T11:09:31Z")
Watchmen ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/17 "2006-05-18T12:32:40Z")
The _Logan’s Run_ remake. Is anything happening on this? Back to the Future IV. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/18 "2006-05-18T12:56:28Z")
> [@Neidhart](#): > > The _Logan’s Run_ remake. Is anything happening on this? Bryan Singer is probably going to put that on hold. If _Superman Returns_ is a success he will leap right into a sequel. > [@Neidhart](#): > > Back to the Future IV. There was never going to be a BTTF IV, so that doesn’t count. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/19 "2006-05-18T13:01:17Z")
> [@](#): > > Quote: > Originally Posted by Neidhart > Back to the Future IV. > There was never going to be a BTTF IV, so that doesn’t count. Yeah, but only because Future Robert Zemeckis came back from the future in his DeLorean and told Present Day Zemeckis how bad it sucked, so he ended up not making it. ---
**Author:** ![dasgupta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@dasgupta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasgupta)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2006, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199/20 "2006-05-18T13:52:26Z")
**Ender’s Game** has been bounced around for quite a while - it’s back on now with Wolfgang Petersen, but I’m not holding my breath. Orson Scott Card’s website has “news” on the movie dating back to 2002, but I had heard info from long before that. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-movie-concepts-that-got-trapped-in-production-hell/357199.md?page=2)