The following is a list of unproduced Spike Lee projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American film director and producer Spike Lee has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects, fell in development hell or are officially canceled.
In the 1990s, Lee reportedly wanted to remake 1951's Ace in the Hole , directed by Billy Wilder. [1] [2]
In July 2000, Lee acquired the rights to make a film about Joe Louis from a script he wrote with boxing expert Bert Randolph Sugar and scriptwriting legend Budd Schulberg under the title Save Me, Joe Louis. [3] The movie was focused on Louis' fights with Max Schmeling with Arnold Schwarzenegger interested in playing Schmeling. [4] In July 2006, Schulberg mentioned that Lee talked with Terrence Howard to play Louis. [5] The film fell into development hell because Lee didn't get half of the budget he needed. In 2018, Lee reaffirmed his intention to make the film, following the death of Schulberg:
"During Budd's last year, he would always call me once a week saying 'Spike did you get the money yet? Spike did you get the money yet?' And I made a promise to Budd that one day, soon, that we'd get the money, and I'm gonna keep that promise and get that film made." [6]
In May 2006, Lee was set to direct 20th Century Fox's supernatural thriller Selling Time, [7] with Tom Cruise in talks to star. [8] In January 2014, D.J. Caruso took over directing the movie from Lee, with Dan McDermott writing a new draft and Will Smith is rumored to star in the movie. [9] However, plans fell in development hell and its fate is unknown after the Acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney was completed. [10]
In September 2006, Lee was planning to follow up his HBO documentary When the Levees Broke with a fictionalized dramatic series for NBC set in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. The series, titled NoLa, was being pitched as an ensemble piece centering on a multicultural group of residents from various different backgrounds, attempting to rebuild their lives after the hurricane. Lee planned to executive produce and direct the pilot if NBC decided to move forward with the project, which he developed with writer Sid Quashie. [11]
In June 2008, it was announced that Lee was going to adapt Ronald Mallett's memoir Time Traveler: A Scientist’s Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality into a feature film. [12] [13] [14] [15] The film was to have been titled Time Traveler and Lee was to have co-written and directed it. [16] [17] On July 27, 2015, Mallett reported that Lee and screenwriter Ian Harnarine were "in negotiations about how to proceed regarding a feature film of my book, Time Traveler." [18]
In July 2008, Lee was set to direct the film L.A. Riots, with John Ridley and Terry George writing the script and Brian Grazer producing the film. [19] In August 2012, Justin Lin was set to direct L.A. Riots, since Lee didn't get enough money and ended up working on Miracle at St. Anna . [20] There has been no further announcements since.
In February 2009, Lee acquired the rights to Brendan Koerner's novel Now the Hell Will Start, a World War II manhunt in the Burmese jungle. [21] However, plans fell into development hell.
On April 21, 2010, Samuel L. Jackson announced that Lee showed him a script that he wrote titled Brooklyn Loves Michael Jackson. The script, according to Jackson, was "about these folks who want to have a big concert in a Brooklyn park for Michael. And the new gentrified people that live in the neighborhood are worried about the kind of element that might be coming into the neighborhood." [22] On January 24, 2011, it was announced that Lee scrapped the project. [23]
On June 21, 2011, HBO announced they would develop a pilot for the series Da Brick, with Lee directing the pilot, written by John Ridley and executive-produced by Lee, Ridley, Mike Tyson, and Doug Ellin, based on Tyson's childhood, [24] and John Boyega was cast as the lead, Donnie. [25] In March 2012, HBO passed on the pilot. [26]
On June 28, 2010, Lee was announced to direct the thriller Nagasaki Deadline with David Griffiths, Peter Griffiths, William Broyles Jr. writing the script and Lightstorm Entertainment producing the film. [27] However, plans fell into development hell.
In December 2011, Lee was set to direct and produce a biopic of Marion Barry with Eddie Murphy set to play Barry, and John Ridley writing the script for HBO Films. [28] There has been no further announcements since.
In August 2012, Lee was in negotiations with the George Gershwin estate to direct the Porgy and Bess remake. [29] In April 2013, Both the Gershwin Family and the DuBose Heyward estate announced a remake is in development without Lee's involvement. [30] On February 11, 2020, Dee Rees was hired to write and direct the remake. [31]
In September 2014, Lee was in negotiations to direct the remake of Enter the Dragon with Ken Jeong set to play Lee and Billy Bob Thornton set to play Roper. [32] In 2015, Brett Ratner revealed that he replaced Lee as director, [33] and in 2018, David Leitch was in early talks to direct. [34]
By September 2017, Sony Pictures was actively developing a film based on the character Nightwatch for their Sony's Spider-Man Universe, with a script from Edward Ricourt. Sony wanted Lee to direct the film, [35] and he was confirmed to be interested in the project in March 2018, with Cheo Hodari Coker re-writing the script. [36] However, Lee was no longer involved by October. [37]
In August 2017, it was announced that Lee was developing Archer, a TV series with a "young, black Mark Zuckerberg-like protagonist" who develops a dating app that reads sexual chemistry. [38]
In November 2018, Lee was set up to direct a film version of the stage show by Roger Guenveur Smith, Frederick Douglass Now. [39]
In November 2019, Lee closed a deal to direct the long-gestated Prince of Cats film, based on the graphic novel. [40]
In November 2020, studio eOne and Lee were prepping a then-untitled film about the breakthrough of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra. Lee was to have directed from a screenplay co-written with Kwame Kwei-Armah, based on the 2015 Esquire article "All Rise: The Untold Story of The Guys Who Launched Viagra". Lee described the project as a "dancin', all singin' musical", featuring original songs and music written by Stew Stewart and Heidi Rodewald. [41] Production was set to begin in early 2023 under the title Rise, [42] though Lee later reported that it had been retitled Boner. [43]
In February 2022, it had been reported that Lee was to film a multipart documentary for ESPN on former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, featuring extensive interviews and access to his personal archive. [44] In December of that year, the documentary was given the title of Da Saga of Colin Kaepernick, and Lee revealed he had been working on the series for over a year. [45]
In November 2022, Lee came aboard as director and executive producer of an untitled coming-of-age drama developed at Amazon Studios. Written by Jalysa Conway and Rebecca Murga, the series was to have been set in the world of an ROTC military program at a major university. [46]
In 2023, Lee was circling to direct Da Understudy, with Jonathan Majors attached to star and produce from Westbrook Studios and Amazon Studios. Tom Hanada, Zach Strauss and Tyler Cole wrote the screenplay, based on an original story by Cole about an "understudy of a Broadway production [who] finds a role he's willing to kill for," as reported by Deadline Hollywood . [47]
David Scarpa is an American screenwriter. He is best known for writing the screenplays to The Last Castle, the 2008 remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still and All the Money in the World, about the John Paul Getty III kidnapping, which was released in December 2017.
Alex Tse is an American screenwriter and television show creator active since 2004. He was one of the creators and executive producers of the 2019 TV series Wu-Tang: An American Saga. Prior to that, Tse wrote the 2004 gangster film Sucker Free City, co-wrote the 2009 superhero film Watchmen, and wrote the 2018 film Superfly.
Matt Reeves is an American filmmaker who first gained recognition for the WB drama series Felicity (1998–2002), which he co-created with J. J. Abrams. Reeves came to widespread attention for directing the hit monster film Cloverfield (2008). He also directed the vampire drama Let Me In (2010), and the critically acclaimed science fiction sequels Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). He directed the superhero film The Batman (2022), which stars Robert Pattinson as the title character.
Team Downey is an American film and television production company founded by Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey that produces films using television properties. David Gambino is the president of production. Team Downey was based at Warner Bros. from its founding in 2010 to October 2016, when the company received a first look deal with Sonar Entertainment. It remains part of Warner Bros' "top priority projects" such as a live-action adaptation of Pinocchio, and an expanded media franchise shared universe based on Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), in which Downey had starred with Jude Law, consisting of a third feature film and two Max streaming television series as of April 2022.
The following is a list of unproduced Ridley Scott projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, English film director Ridley Scott has worked on a number of projects that never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell into development hell or were officially canceled.
The following is a list of unproduced Sam Raimi projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American film director and producer Sam Raimi has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects, are officially cancelled and scrapped or fell in development hell.
The following is a list of unproduced J. J. Abrams projects in roughly chronological order. During a career that has spanned over 30 years, J. J. Abrams has worked on projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction.
The following is a list of unproduced Michael Bay projects in roughly chronological order. During his career, American film director and producer Michael Bay has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell in "development hell" or are officially canceled.
The following is a list of unproduced David Fincher projects in roughly chronological order. During his career, American film director David Fincher has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell in development hell, were officially canceled, were in development limbo or would see life under a different production team.
Apple Studios is an American film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Apple Inc. It specializes in developing and producing television series and films for Apple's digital video streaming service Apple TV+ as well as theatrical releases.
Michael Mann is an American filmmaker known for directing, producing, and writing various works of film and television.
Berlanti Productions is an American film and television production company founded by screenwriter, producer and filmmaker Greg Berlanti and producer Mickey Liddell.
The following is a list of unproduced Kathryn Bigelow projects in roughly chronological order. During her long career, film director Kathryn Bigelow has worked on several projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under her direction. Some of these projects fell in development hell, were officially cancelled, were in development limbo or would see life under a different production team.
The following is a list of unproduced Ron Howard projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American film director Ron Howard has worked on several projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell in development hell, were officially cancelled, were in development limbo or would see life under a different production team.
The following is a list of unproduced Adam McKay projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American filmmaker Adam McKay has worked on several projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell in development hell, were officially canceled, were in development limbo or would see life under a different production team.