# Greatest movies never made **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 9, 2019, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735 "2019-05-09T17:32:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/21 "2019-05-09T22:38:25Z")
I have a book with this title… The one I remember is a movie about Napoleon by Stanley Kubrick. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/22 "2019-05-09T23:57:36Z")
The 1937 version of **I, Claudius** , directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Charles Laughton. Production ceased after Merle Oberon (who played Messalina) was in an auto accident, but the set had been having troubles since the inception. You can see bits and pieces of the movie in the 1965 documentary, **The Epic That Never Was.** I love Charles Laughton in everything, but he would have been a terrific Claudius. > **[I, Claudius (film)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Claudius_(film))** > > I, Claudius is an unfinished 1937 film adaptation of the novels I, Claudius (1934) and Claudius the God (1935) by Robert Graves. Produced by Alexander Korda, the film was directed by Josef von Sternberg, with Charles Laughton in the title role. The production was dogged by adverse circumstances, culminating in a car accident involving co-star Merle Oberon that caused filming to be ended before completion. Footage from the production was incorporated into a 1965 documentary on the making of the ... ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/23 "2019-05-10T00:32:56Z")
George Lucas’s last 3 star wars movies supposedly he had them written I know they gotta different than what Disney’s putting out … ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/24 "2019-05-10T01:46:53Z")
Guy Ritchie was going to make a movie about the Siege of Malta, which is one of the most incredible battles in history. Alas, it was not to be. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/25 "2019-05-10T02:00:11Z")
_The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_ has been optioned many times over the decades, has had multiple scripts written by good authors (Tim Minear, for example), and has even been green-lit a couple of times. It always seems to die in pre-production hell. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/26 "2019-05-10T03:40:33Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_ has been optioned many times over the decades, has had multiple scripts written by good authors (Tim Minear, for example), and has even been green-lit a couple of times. It always seems to die in pre-production hell. Morgan Freeman, of all people, apparently holds the film rights to _Rendezvous with Rama_ and has been trying to get a movie made for over fifteen years. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/27 "2019-05-10T03:53:09Z")
I don’t know how “great” of a movie it would’ve been, but it would’ve been great to see\* Buckaroo Banzai vs. The World Crime League\*. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/28 "2019-05-10T04:09:04Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > The 1937 version of **I, Claudius** , directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Charles Laughton. Production ceased after Merle Oberon (who played Messalina) was in an auto accident, but the set had been having troubles since the inception. You can see bits and pieces of the movie in the 1965 documentary, **The Epic That Never Was.** > > I love Charles Laughton in everything, but he would have been a terrific Claudius. > > [I, Claudius (film) - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Claudius_(film)) Damn, this is the movie that I came in to mention. Beat by four hours. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/29 "2019-05-10T04:10:45Z")
Somebody is sitting on the rights to “Ringworld” ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/30 "2019-05-10T04:44:47Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > I don’t know how “great” of a movie it would’ve been, but it would’ve been great to see\* Buckaroo Banzai vs. The World Crime League\*. I was coming back into the thread to say this exact thing. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/31 "2019-05-10T04:47:29Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > George Lucas’s last 3 star wars movies supposedly he had them written I don’t know that he had them “written,” so much as he might have had an idea of what he might have done in them. OTOH, given that he had strong creative and script control over the Prequel Trilogy, and I felt like they were pretty weak stories and scripts, I’m not at all sure that I would have _wanted_ him involved in 7-8-9. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/32 "2019-05-10T04:50:21Z")
> [@The\_Vorlon](#): > > Somebody is sitting on the rights to “Ringworld” If [the Wikipedia entry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringworld#Adaptations) is correct, it may not actually be being “sat on;” as of 2017, Amazon and MGM were developing a TV series based on it. [The IMDB entry on it](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3341646/) was last updated as “in development,” in September of '17. ---
**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 10, 2019, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/33 "2019-05-10T11:42:10Z")
I don’t know if it’s true, but I heard a rumor sometime after the original _Robocop_ came out that Veerhoeven was going to do a Judge Dee movie. As a big fan of Robert Hans Van Gulik’s Chinese detective (I had just finished reading the entire series about then), I would’ve loved to have seen this. There had already been a TV movie about him, adapting _the Haunted Monastery_, made by the King of TV Movie, Nicholas Meyer. There had also been a six-episode British TV series that I’ve never seen (and probably never will – I don’t think it has been preserved), and thought a big-budget Dee movie would be GREAT. Alas, it either wasn’t so, or it died. There have since been three Chinese movies featuring “Detective Dee”, but a.) they’re wire-work martial-arts films, totally unlike the character of Van Gulik’s Dee, and b.) they lack the supporting characters of Tao Gan, Chao Tai, Ma Joong, and Sergent Hoong (not to mention Dee’s wives) who appeared in the 18th century Chinese Dee novel and whom Van Gulik retained in his series. Dee is still a “detective” in these new movies, but he’s more of a fantastic character, like Batman, than he is Van Gulik’s very clever jurist. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/34 "2019-05-10T11:44:17Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Morgan Freeman, of all people, apparently holds the film rights to _Rendezvous with Rama_ and has been trying to get a movie made for over fifteen years. I actually saw a trailer for this in a cinema several years ago. I don’t remember which movie, or the year. Probably 2009 or 2010, but maybe earlier. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/35 "2019-05-10T13:38:52Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_ has been optioned many times over the decades, has had multiple scripts written by good authors (Tim Minear, for example), and has even been green-lit a couple of times. It always seems to die in pre-production hell. Given how Heinlein’s work has been butchered in Hollywood, this is probably a Good Thing. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/36 "2019-05-10T13:51:02Z")
The first time I read Stephen King’s The Girl Who Loved Rom Gordon, I thought "What a vehicle for Dakota Fanning.’ But she’s too old now. Raegan Revord (young Missy Cooper) could do it now, but she would bot be as good. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/37 "2019-05-10T15:04:53Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The greatest movie we will probably never see? > “The Day The Clown Cried”. I’d see it if I had a chance, but Lewis said it’s just a bad film and that he was ashamed of it. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/38 "2019-05-10T15:14:32Z")
Thirding the _Buckaroo Banzai_ sequel. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/39 "2019-05-10T16:01:37Z")
The [Chris Farley-voiced](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvmRDAVSsM0) Shrek would have been very interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735/40 "2019-05-10T16:02:57Z")
> [@awldune](#): > > [Jodorowsky’s Dune](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodorowsky%27s_Dune) would have been very interesting, although from the documentary I’m not convinced it would have a good film. I agree. Based on the documentary and other Jodorowsky movies I’ve seen, in particular [_El Topo_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Topo), one of the weirdest movies ever made, his version would have made David Lynch’s _Dune_ look normal by comparison. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-movies-never-made/833735.md?page=3)