Abandonned. Legendary Movies that Never Made it to the Big Screen

[Lord]

I disagree.

 

[moviefreak]

Nah, i'm glad we got the E.T. movie we did, Night Skies sounds interesting, but E.T. was an "event", if that film was resurrected, i doubt it would be anything special nowadays, we've already seen things like that, and the 80s had a certain style that's lacking in modern movies.

To me it doesn't matter if we got E.T. or Night Skies because Spielberg at that point in time was ta his absolute peak.

I have a strong feeling that had Spielberg made Night Skies, it would have been one of the scariest movie. You only need to look at how effective he made Jaws & Close Encounter of the Third Kind in terms of suspense and forbearing atmosphere - I was a young guy then but I remember clearly that the audiences in both film jumped in their seats. LOL.

You're correct in the sense that these were the event films - I was old enough to have seen them in the opening week, films like Star Wars, Jaws, Superman, Alien, & E.T., which all represented the apex of late 70s & early 80s mega-blockbuster films. Nowadays, the magic is gone at least for us older generations and most films are oversaturated with actions & digital effects.

The un-filmed films from the 70s, especially in the context of that decade being the high point of creativity, are one of the great what if I keep thinking about.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

It was mentioned in the first page - Spielberg's Night Skies. It may have never been made but the ideas were used in both Poltergeist and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

IIRC, Rick Baker originally designed a working E.T. and other E.T.s that were scarier. Baker posted photos of his efforts that cost him a couple of thousands dollars, on his twitter earlier this year:

https://***********/TheRickBaker/status/469494395813638146

Would have made for an interesting E.T. film instead of the one we got in 1982.

There is this one unmade film by David Lean - Nostromo. An adaptation of Joseph Conrad's 1904 novel of corruption and greed in a fictional South American republic. It would have been made if not for Lean's ill health, creative disputes, and a spiralling budget. Lean died about a month before shooting was due to begin.#

Others of note, David Lynch’s head spinning Ronnie Rocket in the wake of Eraserhead.

David Cronenberg's - Frankenstein.

Andrei Tarkovsky’s - The Idiot based on Dostoevsky’s classic

And of course the 4 Superman films that never took off:

Tim Burton/Kevin Smith - Superman Lives (after rejecting the script for Superman Reborn)

McG/ J.J. Abrams - Flyby (They must have hated Harry Knowles LOL). In this version, IIRC Ashton Kutcher - Superman, Scarlett Johansson - Lois Lane. Shia LaBeouf - Jimmy Olsen and Johnny Depp - Lex Luthor.

Wolfgang Peterson - Batman vs. Superman

George Miller - Justice League.

I would have loved to see Tim Burton's Superman lives and George Miller's a Justice League. Neither sounded inherently bad, just interesting a different.

 

[dark_b]

Miller's Justice League had finished superhero suits . right?

when will this leak?

 

[gwynplaine]

Stanley Kubrick's A.I.

 

[TheAQU4M4N]

Miller's Justice League had finished superhero suits . right?

when will this leak?

I would love to see those!

 

[DOBSON10]

Unfortunately I don't really have any movies to add to this thread, the closest thing I could come up with would be casting rumors that never came to pass that I would have loved to see but never happened for whatever reason.

Definitely glad that Superman Lives and Justice League Mortal were cancelled, Nic Cage as Superman would have been awful (and I'm not even a Nic Cage hater really, he just makes no sense for the role) and most of the Justice League Mortal cast was horrendous at best. I'm surprised Mortal made it as far along as it did with that bad of casting. Glad that never happened.

The Batman Vs. Superman movie sounded interesting I guess, though I definitely didn't like the idea of Superman being a British kid and I'm not a big Jude Law fan, don't think he would have made a good Superman, even if he was a Brit Superman.

Darren Aronofky's idea for Batman sounded horrendous as well. Sorry, I guess I turned my post into a "movies I'm glad were never made" sort of post but I'm glad none of those movies saw the light of day.

The James Cameron Jurassic Park sounds interesting though. But Jurassic Park turned out great so it might have been for the best that it didn't happen as well.

 

[Donnie Darko]

Miller's Justice League had finished superhero suits . right?

when will this leak?

With all if the other stolen photos being leaked recently, you would think something like this would be easy to find.

 

[moviefreak]

With all if the other stolen photos being leaked recently, you would think something like this would be easy to find.

To date no photos, concept arts, etc were ever seen or leaked. These exist since they already cast people for the parts: Armie Hammer (Batman), D.J. Cotrona (Superman), Common (Green Lantern), Adam Brody (The Flash), Anton Yelchin (The Flash - Wally West), Megan Gale (Wonder Woman), Santiago Cabrera (Aquaman), and Hugh Keays-Byrne (Martian Manhunter).

This is supposed tobe the leaked script:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/174348859/Justice-League-Mortal-Script-1

 

[Lord]

To me it doesn't matter if we got E.T. or Night Skies because Spielberg at that point in time was ta his absolute peak.

I have a strong feeling that had Spielberg made Night Skies, it would have been one of the scariest movie. You only need to look at how effective he made Jaws & Close Encounter of the Third Kind in terms of suspense and forbearing atmosphere - I was a young guy then but I remember clearly that the audiences in both film jumped in their seats. LOL.

You're correct in the sense that these were the event films - I was old enough to have seen them in the opening week, films like Star Wars, Jaws, Superman, Alien, & E.T., which all represented the apex of late 70s & early 80s mega-blockbuster films. Nowadays, the magic is gone at least for us older generations and most films are oversaturated with actions & digital effects.

The un-filmed films from the 70s, especially in the context of that decade being the high point of creativity, are one of the great what if I keep thinking about.

Well, regarding "event films" i was talking more about those that break the records of highest grossing when they come out, we still had Titanic and Avatar, and probably will keep getting some more as time goes by. They will obviously be varied, i doubt we'll see another film like those 2 making that much, just like they weren't repeats of E.t or jaws.

 

[dark_b]

around 28 minutes of The Day The Clown Cried leaked online. watch it before they remove it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068451/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Clown_Cried

edit: holly sh... they also showed the ending
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9zy-VQLL9I

 

[dude stannis]

I was recently told about Christophe Gans' Trooper. A movie about a cyborg soldier who is time displaced into depression era New York and does battle with a Jigsaw/Mason Verger-esque killer. It would've starred Van Damme or Dolph Lundgren, as well as Donald Pleasance and Billy Drago as the killer, with a score by Basil Poledouris.

 

[Victarion]

That sounds interesting.