During his long career, French filmmaker Alexandre Aja 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 later be developed by a different production team.
On November 2, 2005, Aja was set to direct Juliet Snowden and Stiles White’s supernatural horror-thriller screenplay The Waiting, with Grégory Levasseur executive producing with Maddalena Films and Gold Circle Films for Rogue Pictures. [1]
On March 8, 2006, Aja was set to direct the feature film adaptation of Charles Burns' graphic novel Black Hole with Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary co-writing the screenplay and Plan B Entertainment & MTV Films producing the film for Paramount Pictures. [2]
On October 4, 2006, Aja was set to direct, write, and produce the feature film adaptation of The Gospel According to Jimmy, with Alexandre Films producing the adaptation. [3]
On March 12, 2009, Aja was set to direct the action thriller The Contractor with Ian Jeffers writing a draft, and Alexandra Milchan producing the movie & Gaumont set to distribute. [4] In 2010, the movie was retitled The Contractors. [5] [6]
On May 2, 2011, Aja was set to direct the live-action film adaptation of Cobra: The Space Pirate with Aja co-writing the screenplay with Grégory Levasseur, and Levasseur producing with Aton Soumache, Dimitri Rassam, Alexandra Milchan, Marc Sessego, Andree Cornier for Onyx, [7] but on March 14, 2018, Aja revealed on the podcast Post Mordem with Mick Garris that he left the movie because of a regime change at Lionsgate Films and the similiaties to Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. [8]
On July 22, 2011, Aja was set to possibly direct and executive produce the television series adaptation of David Cronenberg's film Scanners with Dimension Television producing the series, [9] until September 21, 2022, when HBO started development without Aja's involvement. [10]
On March 2, 2012, Aja was set to direct the feature film adaptation of Tomm Coker and Daniel Freedman's graphic novel Undying Love with Michael De Luca, Stephen L’Heureux and Benderspink producing the film, [11] but was replaced by Joe Carnahan [12] and David Leitch, respectively. [13]
On July 1, 2014, Aja was set to produce Julien Mokrani's feature film adaptation of Xavier Dorison & Enrique Breccia's graphic novel Les Sentinelles with Pavlina Hatoupis and Alix Taylor producing along with Aja. [14]
On October 27, 2014, Aja was set to direct Wedding Gown, with Aja co-writing the script with Maxime Giffard and Jon Crocker, and produced by Aja's company. [15]
On June 1, 2016, Aja was set to direct and write the feature film adaptation of Jean Teulé’s romantic novel The Marquis, with Gaumont and LGM Cinema producing the film. [16]
On April 20, 2017, Aja was set to direct Brad Keene’s thriller screenplay Smart House with James Wan’s Atomic Monster producing the film and Summit Entertainment will distribute. [17]
On October 24, 2018, Aja was set to direct an animated film adaptation of Jerry Hawthorne’s board game Mice & Mystics with David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Aja writing the screenplay, Vertigo Entertainment’s Roy Lee and Jon Berg producing in collaboration with DreamWorks Animation. [18]
On July 24, 2019, Aja was set to direct and produce the American television adaptation of Junji Ito’s manga Tomie with David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick writing the series, Sony Pictures Television producing in collaboration with Universal Content Productions, and Quibi set to distribute. [19] On July 9, 2020, Adeline Rudolph was cast as the lead of the series, [20] but the series was canceled because Quibi shut down and is unknown if it would find another distributor. [21]
On August 14, 2019, Aja was set to direct an haunted house film from a screenplay by Jeff Howard with Mike Flanagan getting story credit, and would be produced with Amblin Entertainment. [22]
On November 19, 2020, Aja was set to direct Cory Goldman’s horror thriller script Elijah, with Aja and Grégory Levasseur rewriting the script, David Goyer’s Phantom Four & Adam Goldworm’s Aperture Entertainment producing the film and Searchlight Pictures distributing the film. [23]
On February 17, 2021, Aja was set to produce Thomas Mendolia's feature film remake of his short film Mr. Thisforthat, with Michael Karr writing the script, and Craig Flores' Bread & Circuses, Peter Luo’s Stars Collective & Jake Wagner producing the feature film. [24]
which has a brace of English-language pics in development with U.S. producers Nick Wechsler and Alexandra Milchan, such as Alexandre Aja's "The Contractors."
She's developing Alexandre Aja's "The Contractors" with Gaumont,...