Films may not be completed for several reasons, with some being shelved during different stages of the production. Some films have been shut down days into production. Other unfinished films have been shot in their entirety but have not completed post-production where the film is edited and sound and score added. Unfinished films are distinguished from unreleased films which are finished but have not yet been released and shown in theatres or released on DVD. In some instances these films cannot be shown for legal reasons. Withdrawn films are similar except they did have brief showings but cannot be shown again, also usually for legal reasons.[ citation needed ]
According to the Film Yearbook, "history has shown that the unfinished film is with few exceptions designed to remain that way." [1] Exceptions do exist: these include Gulliver's Travels and The Jigsaw Man , both of which shut down when they ran out of funds but after a year or more found new financing and were able to finish shooting.[ citation needed ]
Films that were abandoned during the pre-production stage before principal photography began, and significant preparations had been made such as a completed script, hiring of key cast and crew, scheduled start date for filming, and construction of sets and in the case of animated films at the animation production stage.
| Year production was to begin | Film | Director | Screenwriter | Producer | Cast | Notes | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1939 | Kwiaciarka | Konrad Tom | B. Jotkan | Barbara Kostrzewska, Jerzy Pichelski, Igo Sym | A feature film with elements of a musical, production of which was planned to begin in 1940. Work on the film was interrupted by the German invasion of Poland, which began World War II. | [2] | |
| 1954 | Finian's Rainbow | John Hubley | Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Louis Armstrong, Barry Fitzgerald, Jim Backus, David Burns, David Wayne, Ella Logan | An animated film based on the Broadway play of the same title. The film ran into difficulty due to Hubley and Harburg's refusal to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities as a result of which work on the film was abandoned. | [3] | ||
| 1966–1975 | The Freak | Charlie Chaplin | Victoria Chaplin | The Freak was a dramatic comedy from Charles Chaplin. The story revolved around a young South American girl who unexpectedly sprouts a pair of wings. She is kidnapped and taken to London, where her captors cash in by passing her off as an angel. Later she escapes, only to be arrested because of her appearance. She is further dehumanized by standing trial to determine if she is human at all. Chaplin began work in and around 1969 with his daughter Victoria in mind for the lead role. However, Victoria's abrupt marriage and his advanced age proved roadblocks, and the film was never made. | |||
| 1966–1968 | Nasz Człowiek w Warszawie | Stanisław Bareja, Jacek Fedorowicz | Zespół Filmowy Rytm | Bohdan Łazuka | In 1966, Stanisław Bareja and Jacek Fedorowicz, inspired by James Bond films, began working on a script for a spy film about an atomic bomb dropped into the Zegrze Reservoir. Meanwhile, American agents arrived in Warsaw. The script was completed in 1967, and the film was to be produced by the Studio Filmowe Rytm. Due to political reorganization and the dissolution of the Komisja Ocen Scenariuszy, the film lost support from the film community. The Studio Filmowe Rytm was disbanded following the events of March 1968. | [4] | |
| c. 1967 | Frenzy (a.k.a. Kaleidoscope) | Alfred Hitchcock | Benn Levy | Alfred Hitchcock | Considerable test footage was shot. Not to be confused with Hitchcock's 1972 film Frenzy . | ||
| 1968–1970 | Napoleon | Stanley Kubrick | Stanley Kubrick | Jack Nicholson | Kubrick's film about Napoleon was well into preproduction and ready to begin filming in 1970 when MGM cancelled the project. Numerous reasons have been cited for the abandonment of the project, including its projected cost and a change of ownership at MGM. | [5] [6] | |
| 1970 | The Dancer | Tony Richardson | Edward Albee | Harry Saltzman | Rudolf Nureyev as Nijinsky, Claude Jade as Romola and Paul Scofield as Diaghilev | Producer Harry Saltzman canceled the project during pre-production several weeks before shooting was to begin. Saltzman claimed Albee's script was amateurish. Tony Richardson believes Saltzman used this as a pretext to avoid making the film. According to Richardson, Saltzman had overextended himself and did not have the funds to make the film. Saltzman eventually made the film in 1980 as Nijinsky , directed by Herbert Ross. | [7] |
| 1972 | The Streets of Laredo | Peter Bogdanovich | Larry McMurtry, Peter Bogdanovich | Peter Bogdanovich | John Wayne, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Ryan O'Neal, Cybill Shepherd, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, The Clancy Brothers | After directing What's Up, Doc? , Peter Bogdanovich landed a three-picture deal at Warner Bros., the first of which was to be Western called The Streets of Laredo, set just after the American Civil War. Bogdanovich envisioned the film as a "summation of the Western", assembling an all-star cast of iconic Western stars which included primarily John Wayne, James Stewart and Henry Fonda. Fonda accepted the role, as did Stewart, though reluctantly. Wayne, however, declined (under the urgence of director John Ford who was on his death bed at the time), believing the film to be too much of a coda to Westerns. Since the film was keyed off those three actors, Bogdanovich decided not to move forward with it. McMurtry later bought the rights back and adapted their script into a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel which he called Lonesome Dove . | [8] [9] [10] |
| 1973–1978 | The Many Faces of Jesus | Jens Jørgen Thorsen | Jens Jørgen Thorsen | Various, including David Grant | A pornographic film depicting Jesus engaged in sex acts with men and women. The premise caused controversy in every country where production was attempted. The effort was condemned by both Pope Paul VI and Queen Elizabeth II. After failing to secure funding in multiple countries, bans on production in at least two, and a personal ban from entering the United Kingdom, Thorsen abandoned the effort. The saga led to the gay Jesus film hoax (not to be confused with Him , a 1974 gay porn film involving Jesus sometimes claimed to be a hoax). Thorsen later produced The Return , a non-pornographic film about Jesus. | [11] [12] [13] | |
| 1973–1997 | The Prometheus Crisis/Meltdown | John Dahl (1994) | John Carpenter from the novel by Frank M. Robinson and Thomas N. Scortia | Peter Bart and Max Palevsky (1970s) | Dolph Lundgren (1994) Casper Van Dien (1997) | Originally planned as a disaster film about a meltdown at a newly built nuclear power station based on a novel by two of the authors responsible for The Towering Inferno for release by Paramount. John Carpenter's script, retitled Meltdown, was a straight horror film he described as "kind of Halloween in a nuclear power plant." Carpenter's script came close to production in 1994 with Dolph Lundgren starring, and again in 1997 with Casper Van Dien, but fell through both times. | [14] [15] [16] [17] |
| 1973–1986 | The Yellow Jersey | Michael Cimino (1975–1984) Jerry Schatzberg (1986) | Colin Welland, Carl Foreman, Lawrence Konner | Gary Mehlman, Carl Foreman | Dustin Hoffman (1983–1986) Christopher Lambert (1986) | The rights to Ralph Hurne's novel The Yellow Jersey were optioned in 1973 by producer Gary Mehlman, who then made a development deal with Columbia Pictures. The novel, set during the Tour de France, followed an aging professional cyclist who nearly wins the race. By 1975, Mehlman broad aboard Michael Cimino to direct the film. Over the next several years, the film generated expenses of nearly $2 million, and was in development with four studios and several independent production companies. Shooting during the Tour was initially scheduled for 1980, even though the film had no star. In 1983, when Dustin Hoffman indicated an interest in starring in it, production was imminent for 1984. However, Hoffman fired Cimino due to his uncompromising way of working. Hoffman too left the project, unsatisfied with the other replacements. Jerry Schatzberg was then brought aboard to direct, but no other actors accepted the lead role. | [18] [19] [20] |
| 1974–1976 | Dune | Alejandro Jodorowsky | Alejandro Jodorowsky | Michel Seydoux | David Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Orson Welles, Salvador Dalí, Amanda Lear, Gloria Swanson, Mick Jagger, Brontis Jodorowsky | Jodorowsky spent two years developing a film version of Frank Herbert's novel Dune. Actors approached or cast in the film include David Carradine as Leto Atreides, Geraldine Chaplin as Lady Jessica, Orson Welles as Vladimir Harkonnen, Salvador Dalí as Emperor Shaddam IV, Amanda Lear as Princess Irulan, Gloria Swanson as Gaius Helen Mohiam, Mick Jagger as Feyd-Rautha, and Jodorowsky's son Brontis as Paul Atreides. The project was abandoned in 1976. The attempt was the basis of the 2013 documentary Jodorowsky's Dune . | [21] |
| 1975 | Perfect Strangers | Michael Cimino | Michael Cimino | David V. Picker | Roy Scheider, Romy Schneider, Oskar Werner | In 1975, Perfect Strangers entered the early stages of pre-production at Paramount Pictures with a cast composed of Roy Scheider, Romy Schneider and Oskar Werner, and Michael Cimino aboard to helm the film based on his original screenplay. The project was described as a political love story that bore "some resemblance to Casablanca , involving the romantic relationship of three people." Due to various political and internal difficulties at the studio, the film was not made. | [22] [23] |
| 1975–1978 | The Micronauts | Don Sharp, Richard Loncraine and others | John Gay, Gordon Williams and others | Harry Saltzman | Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, James Mason, Honor Blackman, Stacy Keach | Adaptation of novel Cold War in a Country Garden. Some test and special effects footage was shot. Principal photography did not begin. No scenes with the leads were shot. | |
| 1975–1996 | Osioł grający na lirze | Wojciech Has | Jadwiga Kukułczanka | Based on a script by Jadwiga Kukułczana written in 1975, Wojciech Has planned to direct a Polish-French co-production. On December 12, 1981, he was scheduled to fly to Paris, but the director missed his flight, and because martial law in Poland imposed travel restrictions the following day, filming was impossible. Wojciech Has continued to return, attempting to produce the film. In 1996, Jadwiga Kukułczanka attempted to produce the film in a French-Spanish co-production, but due to illness and work commitments, Wojciech Has was unable to work on the film. | [4] [24] | ||
| 1976–1979 [25] | Warhead (a.k.a. James Bond of the Secret Service) | Len Deighton, Sean Connery, Kevin McClory | Kevin McClory for Paramount Pictures | Sean Connery (reportedly being paid US$5M) [26] | Financing and legal troubles doomed the project. McClory eventually licensed his rights to Jack Schwartzman who made Never Say Never Again , which has an entirely different screenplay. McClory continued his attempts to produce versions of Warhead into the 2000s. | [27] [28] | |
| 1977–1987 | Ronnie Rocket | David Lynch | David Lynch | Stuart Cornfeld | Dexter Fletcher (1980) Michael J. Anderson (1987) | After releasing 1977's Eraserhead , David Lynch began work on the screenplay for Ronnie Rocket, also subtitled The Absurd Mystery of the Strange Forces of Existence. Lynch described the film as being "about electricity and a three-foot guy with red hair". He and his agent Marty Michaelson initially attempted to find financial backing for the project, but the studio they met with never got back in touch. Later, Lynch met film producer Stuart Cornfeld who was interested in producing Ronnie Rocket, but when the two realized the project was unlikely to find sufficient financing, Lynch asked to see some other scripts to work from for his next film instead. Lynch would return again to Ronnie Rocket after each of his films, intending it, at different stages, as the follow-up not only to Eraserhead or The Elephant Man but also Dune and Blue Velvet . Brad Dourif, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nance, Isabella Rossellini, Harry Dean Stanton, and Dean Stockwell have also been considered for roles in the film at various times. Lynch visited Northern England to scout a filming location, but found that the industrial cities he had hoped to use had become too modernized to fit his intended vision. The project suffered setbacks because of the bankruptcy of several potential backers. | [29] [30] [31] |
| 1979 | The First Day (Russian: Первый День Pervyj Dyen) | Andrei Tarkovsky | Based on a script by Andrei Konchalovsky | Goskino USSR | Natalya Bondarchuk and Anatoli Papanov | The film was set in 18th-century Russia during the reign of Tsar Peter the Great. As the film was critical of the USSR's state atheism, Tarkovsky submitted a different script to Goskino USSR than the one he actually filmed, with several extra scenes criticizing state atheism. After shooting about half of the film, this was discovered by censors and the project was halted by Goskino. Infuriated, Tarkovsky reportedly destroyed most of the footage he had shot. | [32] |
| 1979 or 1980 | The Lawbreakers | David Lean | Robert Bolt (based on Richard Hough's novel Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian) | Phil Kellogg, Bernard Williams | Christopher Reeve, Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Grant | David Lean and Robert Bolt began working on a script in October 1977, planning to adapt the source novel into two films; The Lawbreakers and The Long Arm. In November 1977, Dino De Laurentiis announced he would finance the project, and in December Paramount Pictures signed on to distribute. The intention was to shoot the film in Tahiti, where De Laurentiis had a large facility built. Producer Bernard Williams budgeted The Lawbreakers alone at $40 million, and De Laurentiis decided he could not afford to proceed. The first film's script was finished in November 1978, but Bolt later suffered from a heart attack followed by a stroke, leaving the second incomplete. Lean was ultimately forced to abandon the project after overseeing casting and the construction of the Bounty replica which cost $4 million. De Laurentiis did not want to lose the millions he had already invested, so he looked for a new director. Christopher Reeve stayed on as Fletcher Christian through the change in director, but he later dropped out at the last minute and was replaced by Mel Gibson. The film was released as one film, The Bounty , in 1984. | [33] [34] [35] [36] |
| The Long Arm | |||||||
| 1979 or 1980 | The Short Night | Alfred Hitchcock | David Freeman from Ronald Kirkbride's novel | Alfred Hitchcock for Universal Studios | Project cancelled due to Hitchcock's advanced years and ill-health. | ||
| 1979–1995 | On the Road | Francis Ford Coppola | Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Coppola (based on the Jack Kerouac novel of the same name | Ethan Hawke, Brad Pitt | Francis Ford Coppola bought the screen rights to On the Road in 1979. Over the years, he hired several screenwriters to adapt the book into a film, including Michael Herr and Barry Gifford, only for Coppola to write his own draft with his son, Roman. In 1995, Coppola planned to shoot on black-and-white 16 mm film and held auditions with poet Allen Ginsberg in attendance but the project fell through. It was finally made by Walter Salles, and released in 2012. | [37] [38] | |
| 1979–1986 | The Works | Lance Williams | Lance Williams | Alexander Schure | An animated feature about robots, it would have been the world's first computer animated movie had it been made. But because of technical limitations in computer power and tools back in the 70s and early 80s, the movie never went into actual production. | [39] | |
| Mid-to-late 1980s | Flamingos Forever | John Waters | John Waters | John Waters for New Line Cinema | Divine, Mary Vivian Pearce, Edith Massey, Mink Stole, Jean Hill | The unfilmed sequel to Pink Flamingos would have taken place 15 years after the events of the first movie. Troma Entertainment offered to finance the film at $600,000. However, the film was cancelled because Divine wanted to focus on more serious, male roles and Edith Massey died in 1984. Waters did not feel comfortable with Troma's post-editing facilities. The original screenplay can be found in his 1988 book "Trash Trio". | [40] |
| 1981–1983 | Sea Trial | William Friedkin | Based on Frank De Felitta's novel | William Friedkin, Peter Guber, Jon Peters | Michael Nouri, Laura Branigan | Principal photography was announced to begin in the summer of 1983, though Fox ultimately cancelled the production. | [41] [42] |
| 1984–1991 | Gale Force | Renny Harlin | David Chappe | Daniel Melnick | Sylvester Stallone | The story is set in a small coastal community in South Carolina, where an ex-Navy SEAL returns from prison, but is unwelcome. He then has to fight a group of modern pirates who invade the community while it is being struck by a major hurricane. David Chappe first wrote a spec script for Gale Force in 1984, but after serving as a reader and editor in the industry, revised the story six times from 1987 to 1989. Chappe's final draft was so praised that it became subject to a bidding war between multiple studios, which Carolco Pictures won at $500,000, and it led to multiple bidding wars for spec scripts within the ensuing years. Sylvester Stallone was cast to star in Gale Force, and Renny Harlin was signed on to direct, but since the latter was promised creative control, requested multiple re-writes by other writers to increase the amount of action. In October 1991—two weeks before filming was scheduled to begin—Carolco cancelled the project after its projected budget reached $40 million, and since the studio struggled to figure out how to make the visual effects work. Harlin, Stallone, and the rest of the then-production team moved on to work on Cliffhanger, instead. | [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] |
| 1986 | Paradise Road | Peter Bogdanovich | David Scott Milton, Peter Bogdanovich (from the novel of the same name) | Peter Bogdanovich | Frank Sinatra, James Stewart, Lee Marvin, Charles Aznavour, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Sophia Loren, John Ritter | In the late '80s, Peter Bogdanovich almost led an all-star cast for a comedy-drama set in Las Vegas called Paradise Road about degenerate gamblers who lose their casino in a poker game. However, the film was not made, due to the meddling of Sinatra's lawyers, as claimed by Bogdanovich. | [49] [50] [51] [52] |
| 1987 | Blest Souls | Michael Cimino | Eoghan Harris, Robert Bolt, Michael Cimino | Barry Spikings, Michael Cimino, Joann Carelli | Sean Bean, Tilda Swinton | Michael Cimino planned to make a film about 1920s Irish leader Michael Collins, going as far as going to County Kerry, Ireland to scout locations. The script was written by Eoghan Harris, but it was really a complete revision and rewriting of the script by Robert Bolt that Cimino worked from. Columbia Studios was eager to do it, but since Coca-Cola called the shots at the time, they refused to give Cimino funding. It was canceled by 1987, and a rival script at Warner Bros. eventually was made by Neil Jordan. | [53] [54] [55] |
| 1987 or 1988 | Winchell | Bob Fosse | Michael Herr | Robert Benton | Robert De Niro | Fosse started to work on the biographical film based on the American newspaper gossip columnist Walter Winchell with Robert De Niro starring as Winchell. Before he could even start the picture, Fosse died. | [56] |
| Late 1980s | Leningrad: The 900 Days | Sergio Leone | Based on Harrison Salisbury's non-fiction The 900 Days: The Siege Of Leningrad | Sergio Leone | Robert De Niro | After Once Upon a Time in America , Sergio Leone spent the remainder of his life preparing to produce and direct an epic war film set during the Siege of Leningrad with Robert De Niro playing an American journalist inside the city. Having raised $100 million in funding and discussed location filming with the Soviet government, Leone died of a heart attack before production could begin in earnest. | [57] |
| Late 1980s | Oil and Vinegar | Howard Deutch | John Hughes | Molly Ringwald, Matthew Broderick | After he finished writing the script for Pretty in Pink , Hughes wrote the script of a film titled Oil and Vinegar, which was to star Matthew Broderick and Molly Ringwald as a couple who "spend a day in a motel room, swapping stories on life and love". According to Broderick, "It was very intimate: it was just the two of them, basically, is my memory, often in a car. It was a very typical romantic comedy about two very different people who fell in love, but it was very inventive in its smallness." The film was to have been released by Universal Pictures, but Hughes objected when the studio asked for rewrites. Therefore, the creative differences between Hughes and Universal, along with Broderick and Ringwald's scheduling conflicts, are credited for why the film was never made. | [58] [59] [60] [61] | |
| 1990–1997 | Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian | Jonathan Gems | The film was in development in 1990, with a script by Jonathan Geems. It was supposed to tell the story of the Deetz family moving to Hawaii to build a resort, which turned out to be built on the site of a former cemetery. Beetlejuice was supposed to get involved, accidentally awakening a ghost and causing chaos. Due to an unsatisfactory story idea and Warner Bros.'s insistence on a Batman sequel, the film was ultimately abandoned. | [62] | |||
| 1990–2005 | The Magic 7 | Roger Holzberg | Roger Holzberg | Roger Holzberg John Kilkenny Ron Layton | John Candy, Michael J. Fox, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Ice-T, Dirk Benedict, Madeline Kahn | A fantastic animated film with an all-star cast, it was originally scheduled to premiere on Earth Day, April 22, 1997, before being pushed back to 2005. The deaths of several key actors and financial difficulties led to the film being shelved. | |
| 1991 | Night Ride Down | Harold Becker | Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz | Harrison Ford | Set during a Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters strike in the 1930s, Harrison Ford was cast to portray a Pullman Sleeping Car Company executive and lawyer whose daughter is kidnapped to discredit the union. Ford described the project as "a running, jumping and falling down movie, on trains", an action-adventure trope he had simmilarly experienced in the Indiana Jones franchise. Filming was scheduled to take place in Chicago from September 25 to November 5, 1991. Some mainline steam locomotives and several pieces of rolling stock were to be leased and filmed on the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway. By August, Harold Becker had the script reworked to help remedy the affects of the early 1990s recession, but the changes dissatisfied Ford, and he backed out. With a projected budget of over $46 million, production on Night Ride Down was quickly cancelled by Paramount Pictures. Due to a debt Paramount owed Ford for the cancellation, he went on to replace Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan in Patriot Games . | [63] [64] [65] [66] [67] [68] | |
| 1991 | Nostromo | David Lean | David Lean, Maggie Unsworth (from the Joseph Conrad novel of the same name) | Serge Silberman | Georges Corraface, Marlon Brando, Paul Scofield, Peter O'Toole, Isabella Rossellini, Christopher Lambert, Dennis Quaid | During the last years of his life, David Lean was in pre-production of a film version of Joseph Conrad's Nostromo. Steven Spielberg was initially attached to produce the project, with the backing of Warner Bros., but after several rewrites and disagreements on the script, he left the project and was replaced by Serge Silberman. Several writers circled the project, including Christopher Hampton and Robert Bolt, but their work was abandoned. In the end, Lean decided to write the film himself with the assistance of Maggie Unsworth (wife of cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth). Originally Lean considered filming in Mexico but later decided to film in London and Madrid. Nostromo had a total budget of $46 million and was six weeks away from filming at the time of Lean's death. It has been rumored that fellow film director John Boorman would take over, but the production collapsed. | [69] |
| 1993–1994 | Crusade | Paul Verhoeven | Walon Green | Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Turturro, Robert Duvall, Gary Sinise, Charlton Heston, Jennifer Connelly | Set during the Crusades in the late 11th century, the historical epic film was to focus on a thief named Hagen, who after faking a miracle, became a high-profile figure during the battles. Arnold Schwarzenegger first expressed interest in starring in a Crusades-based film during production of Total Recall. Paul Verhoeven, in turn, hired Walon Green to write a script, and then pre-production began in 1993. By May 1994, shortly before filming was scheduled to begin in Spain, the film's projected budget reached $100 million, and when Verhoeven refused to reassure that it could have been maintained or lowered, the financially-frail Carolco Pictures cancelled Crusade. Schwarzenegger obtained the rights to revive the project under another studio. | [70] [71] [72] | |
| 1996 | The Double | Roman Polanski | Jeremy Leven (from the Fyodor Dostoevsky novel of the same name) | Lili Fini Zanuck, Todd Black | John Travolta, Isabelle Adjani, John Goodman, Jean Reno | Travolta reportedly stormed out of rehearsals thereby shutting down pre-production. Shooting to have begun in May 1996. Travolta was being paid US$17M. Robert Richardon was signed to photograph the film and Pierre Guffroy design the sets. | [73] |
| 1996 | Seksmisja 3, czyli graniasta cytryna | Juliusz Machulski | Juliusz Machulski, Ryszard Zatorski | The script for the film was written in 1996, but production was abandoned due to high costs and the ongoing production of the films Kiler and Kiler-ów 2-óch. | |||
| 1996–1998 | Superman Lives | Tim Burton | Kevin Smith, Wesley Strick, Dan Gilroy | Jon Peters | Nicolas Cage | A film based on DC Comics superhero Superman was developed by Warner Bros. for two years, with Burton directing. Smith, Strick and Gilroy wrote scripts; Cage was hired to play Superman. Filming was scheduled to begin in early 1998 but was repeatedly pushed back. The studio had spent $30 million on the film by the time it was cancelled in 1998. The attempt was the basis of the documentary The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened? | [74] |
| 1997–1998 | The Age of Aquarius | Phil Alden Robinson | Phil Alden Robinson | Harrison Ford, Kristin Scott Thomas | Set throughout the Middle East in 1984, the war-romance film would have focused on a mercenary who delivers food and weapons to war-devastated countries for profit. Along the way, he falls in love with an estranged Bosnian woman and later rescues her from the war-ravaged Sarajevo. Harrison Ford agreed to take on the leading role for $20 million, and Kristin Scott Thomas was to take on the female lead. Universal Pictures financed the project and was reportedly planned to distribute it internationally, while DreamWorks Pictures was to distribute domestically. Principal photography was scheduled to begin in February 1998, but by that time, the film's projected budget reached $100 million, and unwilling to spend that amount of money for the film, Universal cancelled production. Ford and Thomas both went on to star in Random Hearts , instead. | [75] [76] | |
| 1997–1999 | Brasil 1500 (American title: Gonçalo) | Michael Cimino | Fábio Fonseca, David Newman | Ilya Salkind, Jane Chaplin, Cláudio Kahns | Antonio Banderas, Paul Scofield | This Brazilian-American co-production, budgeted at $35 million, intended to portray the events of April 21, 1500 in Santa Cruz de Cabrália, the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral's flagship in Brazil. Written by Fábio Fonseca, with revisions by David Newman, filming was initially set for early 1998, and then again in early 1999, for a planned release in 2000 coinciding with the 500th anniversary of the discovery of Brazil. The film was to be told through the eyes of a fictional character, (similarly to Titanic ), Gonçalo, a Portuguese sailor from Cabral's fleet. Antonio Banderas considered to star, with a supporting cast composed largely of Brazilian natives. Locations included Porto Seguro, Portugal, and studios in Los Angeles. Director Michael Cimino claimed that an exact replica of Cabral's flagship had been constructed for the production. | [77] [78] |
| 1998–2012 | 1906 | Brad Bird | Brad Bird | Pixar Warner Bros. Pictures | A live-action crime film about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, written by Brad Bird in 1998, was later auctioned off to Warner Bros. Pictures. Following the box office success of The Incredibles, Brad Bird was tapped to direct 1906. The film's budget was estimated at $200 million. Due to costs and financial risks, production was suspended. | [79] | |
| 1999–2005 | Flora Plum | Jodie Foster | Steven Rogers | Jodie Foster, Barry Mendel | Claire Danes, Russell Crowe (left project), Ewan McGregor | Foster planned to direct the romance film set among 1930s circus performers, and the start of filming was delayed after Crowe sustained a shoulder injury and left the project. McGregor replaced Crowe, but the project was abandoned in 2005. | [80] [81] |
| 2004 | A Cold Case | Mark Romanek | John Sayles, Eric Roth (from the Philip Gourevitch novel of the same name) | Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman | Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro | Mark Romanek's dream project was an adaptation of the procedural novel A Cold Case starring Tom Hanks as chief investigator Andy Rosenzweig. Robert De Niro also signed on for a role. The film was in the late stages of pre-production when it was suddenly pulled due to life rights issues with the novel. Subsequent revivals of the film would too be halted due to Hanks' commitment with other roles at the time. "I hope to make it someday and in a way," said Romanek. "It's a part for Tom Hanks that might be a lot more affecting when he's older." | [82] [83] [84] |
| 2004 | Time Between Trains | Todd Field | Scott Smith, Todd Field (based on Gene Smith's non-fiction American Gothic) | Todd Field, William Horberg, Sydney Pollack, Anthony Minghella | Time Between Trains was an American Civil War-era biopic of the famed stage actor Edwin Booth, brother of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth. The project had found its roots in American Gothic, a book by Gene Smith about the Booth family, optioned by DreamWorks Pictures for Field, with Scott Smith tapped to write the script. Field claimed he spent months doing his own research in the Theater Collection at Harvard's Pusey Library and was ultimately unwilling to compromise on the historical detail required to depict five major cities over a 50-year span, which would have put the budget in the $50 million to $80 million range. DreamWorks halted the project after executive Michael De Luca left the company. | [85] [86] [87] | |
| 2007–2008 | Justice League: Mortal | George Miller | Kieran Mulroney, Michele Mulroney | Dan Lin, Doug Mitchell, Barrie M. Osborne | Armie Hammer, D. J. Cotrona, Megan Gale, Adam Brody, Common, Santiago Cabrera, Jay Baruchel | Miller began preproduction on the live-action adaptation of the animated series Justice League Unlimited in 2007. The cast included Armie Hammer (Batman), D.J. Cotrona (Superman), Megan Gale (Wonder Woman), Adam Brody (The Flash), Common (Green Lantern), Santiago Cabrera (Aquaman), and Jay Baruchel (Maxwell Lord) who had begun training for the film. Filming was scheduled to begin in February 2008 but was postponed due to script and budget issues, the 2007–08 WGA strike, and Warner Bros. deciding against having another film version of Batman with The Dark Knight in post-production. | [88] |
| 2007–2010 | Pinkville | Oliver Stone | Mikko Alanne | Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum, Woody Harrelson, Michael Peña, Cam Gigandet, Xzibit | In August 2007, it was announced that Oliver Stone was going to make Pinkville, a dramatization about the My Lai massacre. The film was to have starred Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum and Woody Harrelson in the lead roles. However, on November that same year, the project was postponed by its distributor, United Artists, in the wake of the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike. In January 2008, it was announced that the project was officially cancelled. It was later reported in December 2010 that Stone had spoken with Shia LaBeouf about considering to revive Pinkville with the latter starring. | [89] [90] [91] [92] | |
| 2008–2010 | Newt | Gary Rydstrom | Gary Rydstrom Leslie Caveny | Pixar | Pixar's animated film, which was to tell the story of a newt whose species is in danger of extinction, involved a group of scientists attempting to mate two newts through love, thus exposing them to a complicated love story. The film was initially scheduled for release in 2011, but was later postponed to 2012. Due to script problems and the development of Blue Sky Studios' film Rio, which had a similar plot, the beginning of 2010 the decision was made to cancel production. | [93] [94] | |
| 2009–2012 | The Adventures of Thomas | Shane Acker | Josh Klausner, Will McRobb, Chris Viscardi | Julia Pistor | In March 2009, HIT Entertainment launched a studio division, HiT Movies, to begin producing theatrical films based on their children's IPs, and Julia Pistor was hired to produce them. HiT quickly decided on a live-action Thomas & Friends film as their first project, and Shane Acker was later attached to direct. Weta Digital was to be contracted to design the visual effects. The film's story, first written by Josh Klausner, was to be set during World War II, focusing on a boy and his father who had drifted apart before the former visits the Island of Sodor, which Acker described as "a world of trains without people". In February 2012, Mattel finalized their purchase of HiT Entertainment, and development on The Adventures of Thomas was quickly abandoned. | [95] [96] [97] [98] | |
| 2010–2012 | Eastern Promises 2 | David Cronenberg | Steven Knight | Paul Webster | Vincent Cassel, Viggo Mortensen | In 2010, work was planned on a sequel to Eastern Promises, the action of which was to take place in Russia, where the film was to be shot. The film was scheduled to begin shooting in early 2013, but in August 2012, the film was abandoned due to costs incurred by Focus Features and Steve Knight's loss of interest in the project, who withdrew from the sequel. | [99] [100] |
| 2011–2015 | Zły | Xawery Żuławski | Xawery Żuławski | Matthew Tyrmand | Xawery Żuławski planned to make a historical film adaptation of the book of the same title by Leopold Tyrmand which was scheduled to premiere in 2014. In 2013 Polish Film Institute allocated a PLN 3.5 million subsidy for the production, but work was halted after Matthew Tyrmand removed director Xawery Żuławski from working on the film. | [4] | |
| 2012–2015 | Kobro | Iwona Siekierzyńska | Iwona Siekierzyńska, Wojciech Pawlik | A biographical film of life Katarzyna Kobro with feminist overtones. The production was not carried out due to the lack of space and the commencement of work on the film Powidoki by Andrzej Wajda based on the biography of Katarzyna Kobro's husband, Władysław Strzemiński. | [4] | ||
| 2013–2014 | Midnight Rider | Randall Miller | Randall Miller, Jody Savin | Randall Miller, Jody Savin | William Hurt | Based on the life of musician Gregg Allman, the film was cancelled after camera assistant Sarah Jones was killed and seven others injured by a train while the production was filming a camera test on an active railroad trestle bridge. | [101] |
| 2014–2019 | Gambit | Various | Josh Zetumer | Lauren Shuler Donner | Channing Tatum | Preproduction on a film based on the Marvel Comics character Gambit began in 2014 with Tatum in the lead. Numerous directors were announced for the project including Rupert Wyatt, Doug Liman and Gore Verbinski. Production was scheduled to begin numerous times in New Orleans, until Disney cancelled the project in 2019. | [102] |
| 2014–2017 | The Trap | Harmony Korine | Harmony Korine | Charles-Marie Anthonioz | Idris Elba, Benicio del Toro, Robert Pattinson, Al Pacino, James Franco, Gucci Mane | Jamie Foxx was initially cast to star, but was replaced by Idris Elba. Benicio del Toro landed a role in Star Wars: The Last Jedi , which also delayed the production. Four weeks before shooting began, the financiers pulled out. | [103] [104] [105] [106] |
| 2015–2017 | Gigantic | Nathan Greno Meg LeFauve | Dorothy McKim | Animation musical fantasy set in Spain during age of exploration based on novel Jack and the Beanstalk produced by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The premiere was initially planned for March 2018, and then postponed premiere for November 25, 2020, but work on the production was interrupted in October 2017 due to problems with writing the story for the film's script. | |||
| 2017–2018 | Beyond The Sky/Planes 3 | Disneytoon Studios | A sequel to the Planes franchise, this film was supposed to be about space exploration. The film's premiere was scheduled for April 12, 2019. The film was canceled due to the closure of Disneytoon Studios. | [107] | |||
| 2017–2018 | Silver & Black | Gina Prince-Bythewood | Lindsey Beer, Geneva Robertson-Dworet | Amy Pascal, Matt Tolmach | Based on the Marvel characters Silver Sable and Black Cat. Filming was delayed indefinitely before the planned start of production in March 2018 because Prince-Bythewood was not happy with the script. The film was cancelled in August 2018. | [108] |
Films that were abandoned after principal photography had commenced, or in the case of animated films, after animation had begun.
| Year of production | Film | Director | Screenwriter | Producer | Cast | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1913 | Obrona Częstochowy | Edward Puchalski | Wytwórnia filmowa Sokół | The film is based on the novel Deluge by Henryk Sienkiewicz about the Swedish Deluge. Work was halted when the creators did not receive permission from the Russian authorities for the army to participate in outdoor filming. The scenes recorded for the film were later used to produce The Deluge, which premiered in 1915. | |||
| 1922 | Number 13 (a.k.a. Mrs. Peabody) | Alfred Hitchcock | Anita Ross | Alfred Hitchcock for Gainsborough Pictures | Clare Greet, Ernest Thesiger | Production stopped when funding ran out. | |
| 1930–1934 | Great Day | Harry Beaumont, Harry A. Pollard | Joan Crawford, Johnny Mack Brown, John Miljan, Anita Page, Marjorie Rambeau, John Charles Thomas | [109] | |||
| 1931 | Creation | Willis H. O'Brien | Story by Edgar Rice Burroughs | Merian C. Cooper, David O. Selznick | Ralf Harolde | ||
| 1935–1937 | Bezhin Meadow | Sergei Eisenstein | Isaak Babel, Sergei M. Eisenstein, Aleksandr Rzheshevsky, based on a story by Ivan Turgenev | V. Ya. Babitsky | Vitya Kartashov, Nikolai Khmelyov, Pavel Ardzhanov, Yekaterina Teleshova, Erast Garin, Nikolai Maslov, Boris Zakhava | ||
| 1935–1936 | The Adventures of Pinocchio | Raoul Verdini, Umberto Spano | CAIR | An animated film based on the novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, commissioned by Alfredo Rocco to create the first Italian animated film. The film was never completed due to technical and financial problems, which led to the closure of the CAIR (Cartoni Animati Italiani Roma) studio. | |||
| 1937 | I, Claudius | Josef von Sternberg | Alexander Korda | Charles Laughton, Emlyn Williams and Merle Oberon | Production was dogged by ill-luck. A car accident involving Oberon caused filming to be abandoned. | ||
| 1939 | Legion Condor | Karl Ritter | Felix Lützkendorf, Karl Ritter | UFA | Paul Hartmann, Albert Hehn, Fritz Kampers | Anti-communist war film about the Condor Legion fighting in the Spanish Civil War. Production was halted in late August 1939 for political reasons following the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact so as not to offend the Soviets. | |
| 1939 | Przybyli do wsi żołnierze | Romuald Gantkowski | Wiktor Budzyński, kpt. Jerzy Ciepielowski | Kohort | Józef Kondrat, Tadeusz Fijewski, Nina Świerczewska | A comedy film whose production was interrupted by the German invasion of Poland starting World War II. | |
| 1939 | Przygody pana Piorunkiewicza | Eugeniusz Cękalski | Stanisław Dygat, Eugeniusz Cękalski | Jan Kurnakowicz, Władysław Grabowski | A feature comedy intended for Polish Telegraphic Agency to promote achievements Second Polish Republic. Unfinished due to the German invasion of Poland starting World War II. | [110] | |
| 1939 | Uwaga! Szpieg | Eugeniusz Bodo | Napoleon Sądek, Stanisław Belski | Rex-Film | Eugeniusz Bodo, Helena Grossówna | The production was interrupted by the German invasion of Poland starting World War II. | [111] |
| 1942 | It's All True | Orson Welles | Orson Welles, John Fante, Norman Foster, Robert Meltzer | Orson Welles | Ensemble | RKO cancelled the project after Welles had filmed for over five months. The project was the basis of the documentary It's All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles . | [112] |
| 1943 | Sogno d'amore | Ferdinando Maria Poggioli | Sergio Amidei, Ferdinando Maria Poggioli | Vitalba | Miriam di San Servolo | ||
| 1962 | Something's Got to Give | George Cukor | Nunnally Johnson, Walter Bernstein | Henry T. Weinstein | Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin | This was a remake of My Favorite Wife (1940). The film had shot for over a month when Monroe was fired, but she was later rehired but died before filming could resume. After her death, a different version of the film was ultimately made as Move Over, Darling (1963). | [113] |
| 1967 | Monsieur LeCoq | Seth Holt | Ian McLellan Hunter, Zero Mostel | Adrian Scott | Zero Mostel, Julie Newmar, Akim Tamiroff, Ronnie Corbett | Officially abandoned due to "poor weather conditions" | [114] |
| 1971 | A Glimpse of Tiger | Anthony Harvey | Jack Brodsky, Elliott Gould | Elliott Gould, Kim Darby | Based on Herman Raucher's novel of the same title. Warner Brothers shut down the film being shot in New York City on Friday 6 March 1971. A germ of the idea was ultimately reworked into What's Up, Doc? (1972). | [115] [116] | |
| 1972 | Game of Death | Bruce Lee | Bruce Lee | Bruce Lee died during filming. Several years later, a new story was crafted around the existing footage with other actors standing in for Lee. | |||
| 1974–1975 | Jackpot | Terence Young | Millard Kaufman | William D. Alexander for Paramount Pictures | Richard Burton, James Coburn, Charlotte Rampling | Robert Mitchum was originally signed to co-star. Audrey Hepburn declined an offer to co-star. Burton played Reid Lawerence, an actor "paralysed by a falling lift." A media report claims that Burton would play an academy award-winning actor down on his luck who suddenly wins another academy award. The film was to be shot in Rome and Nice. [117] Another media report claims that the story was about "a famous actor" who "fakes a grave illness" to collect insurance money. [118] An article claims that "insurance swindle thriller" stalled due to a lack of funds. [119] Terence Young claimed that he could have finished the film if he could have gotten the three stars together for one more week. | [1] [120] |
| 1975 | Bogart Slept Here | Mike Nichols | Neil Simon | Howard W. Koch | Robert De Niro, Marsha Mason | Production shut down after a week of filming, when Nichols realized that De Niro was unable to adjust his intense Method style of acting to Neil Simon's precise dialogue. Simon reconceived the story, which was filmed two years later as The Goodbye Girl . | [121] |
| 1975 | The New Spartans | Jack Starrett | Oliver Reed (as a Colonel), Susan George | Production shut down after nine days of filming. | [1] [122] | ||
| 1975 | Closed-Up Tight (a.k.a. Fermeture Annuelle) | Cliff Owen | Probably Peter Welbeck (a.k.a. Harry Alan Towers)[ citation needed ] | Harry Alan Towers for Barongreen and Canafox Films (Montreal). | Marty Feldman (cat burglar), Annie Belle (his daughter), Ron Moody, Robin Askwith, Terry-Thomas, Yvon Dufour, Jacques Dufilho. | Production began in August 1975. Filmed for two weeks. A British-French-Canadian co-production. Rémy Julienne was stunt co-ordinator. | [123] |
| 1975 | Trick or Treat | Michael Apted | based on Ray Connolly's novel | David Puttnam and Sandy Lieberson for Goodtimes Enterprises; also EMI Films and Playboy Productions | Bianca Jagger, Jan Smithers | Shot in Rome and about forty minutes of usable footage was shot before the shoot was cancelled. | [124] |
| 1972–1976 | Vileness Fats | Graeme Whifler & The Residents | The Residents | The Residents | Jay Clem, George Ewart, Marge Howard, Sally Lewis, Hugo Olson, Margaret Smik & Danny Williams | From 1972 to 1976 multi-media group The Residents worked on a film called Vileness Fats. It was to be 'The Ultimate Underground film' and was teased in a number of their musical releases from that period, however in 1976 the project was unexpectedly abandoned by the group. In 1984 a short cut of scenes from the film was released on VHS as "Whatever Happened to ''Vileness Fats''?" | [125] |
| 1977 | Who Killed Bambi? | Russ Meyer, then Jonathan Kaplan | Roger Ebert and Malcolm McLaren | The Sex Pistols | Intended partly as a vehicle to bring the Sex Pistols to American attention, Russ Meyer was three days into principal photography in October 1977 when production studio 20th Century Fox withdrew, dooming the project. | ||
| 1985 | The Two Jakes | Robert Towne | Robert Towne | Robert Evans for Paramount Pictures | Jack Nicholson, Robert Evans, Kelly McGillis | Shut down during production because of disputes between writer-director Towne and producer/co-star Evans. The film was eventually shot and released in 1990 with Nicholson directing; this version co-starred Harvey Keitel and Meg Tilly. | |
| 1987 | Apt Pupil | Alan Bridges | Ken Wheat, Jim Wheat | Richard Kobritz | Nicol Williamson, Rick Schroder | An adaptation of Stephen King's novella Apt Pupil began filming in 1987 with Williamson cast as Kurt Dussander and Schroder cast as Todd Bowden. After ten weeks of filming, the production suffered from a lack of funds from its production company, Granat Releasing, and the film had to be placed on hold. An opportunity came to complete the film a year later, but by then Schroder had aged too considerably to shoot additional scenes. Forty minutes of usable footage was abandoned. A second attempt at the adaptation was released in 1998. | [126] |
| 1988 | Atuk | Alan Metter | Tod Carroll | Elliot Abbott, Charles Roven, Don Carmody for United Artists | Sam Kinison, Christopher Walken, Ben Affleck | Based on Mordecai Richler's 1963 novel The Incomparable Atuk . Apparently one scene was shot before Kinison demanded re-writes and the production was shut down.[ citation needed ] | [127] [128] |
| 1989 | Gone in 60 Seconds 2 | H. B. Halicki | H. B. Halicki | H. B. Halicki | H. B. Halicki, Denice Shakarian | Halicki began filming the sequel to his 1974 film Gone in 60 Seconds during the summer of 1989 but was killed while filming a stunt on August 20, 1989, and the film was never completed. | [129] [130] |
| 1990 | Arrive Alive | Jeremiah S. Chechik | Michael O'Donoghue, Mitch Glazer | Art Linson for Paramount Pictures | Willem Dafoe, Joan Cusack | Cancelled by Paramount executives after they watched the first few days of dailies. | [131] |
| 1991 | Dylan | David Drury | Jonathan Brett | Patrick Dromgoole | Gary Oldman, Uma Thurman | A biography of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, the film was shut down after nine days of shooting when Oldman "collapsed on the set," suffering from "nervous exhaustion." | [132] [133] |
| 1991 | Treasures under a mountain / Сокровища под Горой | Roman Mitrofanov | Nikolai Karachentsov | An animated fantasy film adaptation of The Hobbit. The project failed due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and lack of financing. | [134] | ||
| 1991–1997 | Dimension | Lars von Trier | Lars von Trier and Niels Vørsel | Peter Aalbæk Jensen | Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier and Stellan Skarsgård | In 1990, it was originally intended to produce only in three and four-minute segments every year for a period of 33 years for a final release in 2024, but Trier lost his enthusiasm for the project due to his struggle in recent works, notably the "Golden Heart" trilogy (consisting of Breaking the Waves , Idioterne , and Dancer in the Dark ). In 2010, the filmmaker decided to complete all of the unfinished footage into a short film at the time as the rest of the film's development was abandoned. The short film was released on August 25, 2010. | [135] |
| 1992 | Mouche | Marcel Carné | based on Guy de Maupassant's short story | Jacques Quintard | Virginie Ledoyen, Wadeck Stanczak, Roland Lesaffre | Provisionally entitled L'Amour de vivre, financing was withdrawn after only ten days of shooting when the director fell ill. Carné's attempt to "bring [ Impressionist painting ] to life" failed twice, in the '80s and '90s. | [136] [137] |
| 1992 | Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor | Jim Markovic | Tom Clohessy | Krishna Shah | Carrie Chambers, Victor Campos, John Lodico | Principal photography commenced in 1992 in upstate New York before being abandoned when the film's production company, Double Helix Films went bankrupt. The film was intended to go into production again in 2004. However, the surviving footage, which runs at a mere 34 minutes, was made available for the first time when released via the original Region 1 DVD trilogy boxset, now out-of-print. Production was never officially completed, but select clips from the first three Sleepaway Camp films were edited together with the footage of The Survivor as "flashback" sequences, and it was released in 2012 as a stand-alone set. | [138] |
| 1993 | Dark Blood | George Sluizer | Jim Barton | Daniel Lupi, JoAnne Sellar | River Phoenix, Judy Davis, Jonathan Pryce | Phoenix died during production, after approximately 80% of the film had been shot. In 2012, a cut of the film was screened at several film festivals with director Sluizer providing narration for the scenes that were not shot. | [139] |
| 1997 | Broadway Brawler | Lee Grant | unknown | Joseph Feury | Bruce Willis, Maura Tierney, Daniel Baldwin | A sport-themed romantic comedy about a washed up ice-hockey player. Production was halted after 20 days of principal photography due to an acrimonious relationship between Bruce Willis and director Lee Grant and other crew. The financial loss incurred by the production's implosion obliged Willis to take on three roles at reduced salary for the production company: Armageddon , The Sixth Sense , and Disney's The Kid . | [140] |
| 1999 | Fight Harm | Harmony Korine | Harmony Korine | Harmony Korine | The premise of the film was to verbally provoke passers-by into a fight. The rules were that Korine couldn't throw the first punch and the person confronted had to be bigger than Korine. To him, Fight Harm was high-comedy reminiscent of Buster Keaton. "I wanted to push humor to extreme limits to demonstrate that there's a tragic component in everything." Filmed in New York, the project was abandoned following the injuries and arrests Korine faced while shooting. | [141] [142] [143] | |
| 1999–2000 | The Man Who Killed Don Quixote | Terry Gilliam | Jean Rochefort, Johnny Depp | During the first week of shooting, the actor playing Don Quixote (Jean Rochefort) suffered a herniated disc, and a flood severely damaged the set. The film was cancelled, resulting in an insurance claim of US$15 million. The production of the film was the basis of the 2002 documentary Lost in La Mancha , and Gilliam ultimately completed the film nearly two decades later, as 2018's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote . | [144] | ||
| 2001 | Lily and the Secret Planting | Hettie Macdonald | Lucinda Coxon | Sarah Radclyffe | Winona Ryder, Gael Garcia Bernal | Shut down after four days when Winona Ryder was taken to the hospital with "a gastric infection." Kate Winslet was announced as her replacement, but the film was never restarted. | [145] |
| 2002 | The Messenger | Sergei Bodrov Jr. | Sergei Bodrov Jr. | Sergei Bodrov Jr., Siergiej Seljanow | Sergei Bodrov Jr., Anna Dubrovskaya, Alexander Mezentsev | An action film with supernatural elements whose production was interrupted by a glacier Kolka–Karmadon collapse in Karmadon Gorge and the death of the film crew, including Sergei Bodrov Jr. | |
| 2006 | Revenge of the Nerds | Kyle Newman | Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah, Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson, and Adam F. Goldberg | Adam Brody, Dan Byrd, Katie Cassidy, Kristin Cavallari, Jenna Dewan, Chris Marquette, Ryan Pinkston, Efren Ramirez, and Nick Zano | A remake of the first film in the 1980s comedy series was canceled after two weeks of shooting, when Emory University officials read the script and revoked the permission they had given to film; studio executives were disappointed in the dailies. | [146] [147] | |
| 2009–2011 | Yellow Submarine | Robert Zemeckis | Dean Lennox Kelly, Peter Serafinowicz, Cary Elwes, Adam Campbell, and David Tennant | The CGI remake of the 1968 animated Beatles classic film was cancelled following the closure of ImageMovers Digital and the poor box-office results of that studio's last film Mars Needs Moms . Zemeckis considered shopping the remake around to other studios, before he himself gave up on the project. | [148] [149] [150] | ||
| 2010–2018 | Yume Miru Kikai | Satoshi Kon | Satoshi Kon | Masao Maruyama Madhouse, Inc. MAPPA | A fantasy-adventure anime film, production was suspended due to the death of Satoshi Kon. Furthermore, the film was unable to be produced due to a lack of funding and a director. In August 2018, Masao Maruyama decided to abandon work on the film. | ||
| 2012–2014 | 10 Things I Hate About Life | Gil Junger | Jeannette Issa, Gil Junger and Tim McGrath | Andrew Lazar, Tim McGrath and Gary Smith | Evan Rachel Wood, Thomas McDonell, Billy Campbell and Élodie Yung | Production began on the romantic comedy film in 2012. Despite a similar title to popular teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You, also directed by Junger, the films share no continuity. A third of the film had been shot when it was shut down after Smith abruptly resigned as head of the production company and Wood became pregnant. She returned briefly for an attempt to resume in late 2013, but left soon afterwards, claiming the producers had not raised enough money to pay her for the work she'd already done. A lawsuit against her by the studio remains unresolved and the film as begun will never be finished. | [151] |
| 2015 | Wake | John Pogue | Christopher Borrelli | Bruce Willis, Ben Kingsley, Piper Perabo, Cameron Monaghan, Ellen Burstyn | Production on the film shut down after a week of filming due to financial problems. Willis and Pogue left the project due to financial and schedule issues. | [152] | |
| 2017–2024 | Yuri on Ice the Movie: Ice Adolescence | Sayo Yamamoto | Sayo Yamamoto | A film follow-up for the 2016 anime TV series Yuri on Ice , it was announced in 2017. In 2019, it was announced that the film was delayed. In 2020, a trailer for the film was released. The film was officially cancelled in April 2024. | [153] | ||
| 2018–2022 | Escape from Hat | Mark Osborne | Mark Osborne, Adam Kline | Mark Osborne, Jinko Gotoh, Melissa Cobb | Animated fantasy film based on the children's book of the same name by Adam Kline produced for the Netflix platform. The film is cancelled by Netflix in 2022. | [154] | |
| 2018 | Nicole & O.J. | Joshua Newton | Joshua Newton | Boris Kodjoe, Charlotte Kirk | Based on the relationship of O. J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson, filming began in 2018 but was never completed. | [155] [156] | |
| 2022 | Being Mortal | Aziz Ansari | Aziz Ansari | Aziz Ansari, Youree Henley | Aziz Ansari, Bill Murray, Seth Rogen, Keke Palmer | Filming began in March 2022 on the adaptation of Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. The following month, production was suspended due to a complaint against Murray for allegedly sexually harassing a young female crew member. | [157] |
Films that completed principal photography, or in the case of animated films, after most animation had been completed, but were abandoned during the post-production phase or were completed and never released.
| Year of production | Film | Director | Screenwriter | Producer | Cast | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1926 | A Woman of the Sea | Josef von Sternberg | Josef von Sternberg | Charlie Chaplin | Charlie Chaplin | The film was completed, and given a preview screening, but Chaplin was unsatisfied with it and destroyed all known copies in front of witnesses as a tax write-off in 1933. | [158] |
| 1927 | The American | J. Stuart Blackton | Marian Constance Blackton | George K. Spoor | Bessie Love, Charles Ray | Upon viewing the film, which had been made using the experimental Natural Vision process, producer Spoor decided the production was so bad that he would not release it. | [159] [160] |
| 1939 | Nad Niemnem | Wanda Jakubowska, Jerzy Zarzycki | Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz | Spółdzielnia Autorów Filmowych | Elżbieta Barszczewska, Jerzy Pichelski, Bogusław Samborski, Mieczysława Ćwiklińska, Ludwik Sempoliński | Completed drama film based on novel Eliza Orzeszkowa of the same name, scheduled for premiere on September 5, 1939, which did not take place due to the German invasion of Poland. | [161] |
| 1939 | Serce Batiara | Michał Waszyński | Emanuel Szlechter, Ludwik Starski | K.S Popławski | Henryk Vogelfänger, Kazimierz Wajda, Ina Benita | A musical comedy about the Lviv batiars. The production was interrupted by the German invasion of Poland starting World War II. The finished film material was burned during the bombing of Warsaw in 1939. | |
| 1939 | Satan from the Seventh Grade | Konrad Tom | Eugeniusz Bunda, Kornel Makuszyński, Konrad Tom | As-Film | Wanda Bartówna, Mieczysława Ćwiklińska, Jerzy Kaliszewski | A comedy-adventure film based on the novella of the same title. The production could not be completed due to German invasion of Poland starting world war II. | [162] |
| 1966–1969 | The Deep | Orson Welles | Orson Welles | Jeanne Moreau, Laurence Harvey, Orson Welles | Welles filmed The Deep, an adaptation of the novel Dead Calm, but abandoned the film. A rough edit was assembled by the Munich Film Archive and screened in 2015. | [163] | |
| 1972 | The Day the Clown Cried | Jerry Lewis | Jerry Lewis | Nat Wachsberger | Jerry Lewis | Filming completed in 1972 and a rough cut was made, but the film was never released due to various disputes. The film was met with controversy regarding its premise and content, which features a circus clown who is imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. Lewis submitted an incomplete print to the Library of Congress under an agreement it not be screened until 2024. | [164] |
| 1979–1980s | Street of Dreams | Martin Sharp | N/A | Martin Sharp | Tiny Tim | Documentary about the life of Tiny Tim and the 1979 Sydney Ghost Train fire at Luna Park Sydney. Haunted by the subject matter and all the perceived theological connections and synchronicities, Sharp worked obsessively on the film but never finished it during his lifetime. A rough cut was released in 1988 for the purpose of film festival screenings only. | [165] |
| 1991–1992 | Genghis Khan | Ken Annakin | James Carrington | Enzo Rispoli | Richard Tyson, Charlton Heston, Pat Morita, Julia Nickson-Soul | Ran out of funds, Dissolution of the Soviet Union | [166] |
| 1992–1993 | The Fantastic Four | Oley Sassone | Craig J. Nevius, Kevin Rock | Steven Rabiner | Alex Hyde-White, Jay Underwood, Rebecca Staab, Michael Bailey Smith, Carl Ciarfalio, Ian Trigger, Joseph Culp, Kat Green, George Gaynes | Filming completed in 1993 and a Labor Day weekend release was planned before being pushed to January 19, 1994, only to be cancelled at the last minute. The film's reels were confiscated and cease and desist letters were sent to the cast to halt marketing. Franchise creator Stan Lee claimed that the film was an ashcan production that was never meant to be released in the first place. | [167] [168] [169] [170] [171] |
| 1996 | Mariette in Ecstasy | John Bailey | Ron Hansen | Frank Price, John Bailey | Rutger Hauer, Mary McDonnell, Eva Marie Saint, John Mahoney, Geraldine O'Rawe | Filming was completed in 1995, and a release in 1996, but it was cancelled due to Savoy Pictures' financial troubles. The director saved the lone 35mm copy of the film and eventually released in the 2019 Camerimage International Film Festival. | [172] [173] |
| 1997–2002 | Daybreak | Randal Atamaniuk | Randal Atamaniuk | Randal Atamaniuk | Collin Doyle, Aaron Talbot, Cameron McLay, José DeSousa, Darcy Shaw | Principal photography was completed in 1997 and a final cut assembled in 2002, but was never finished or screened due to insufficient funds for post production, and has never been released. | [174] |
| 2002 | In God's Hands | Lodge Kerrigan | Lodge Kerrigan | Steven Soderbergh | Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard | The film completed principal photography, but the entire project had to be abandoned due to irreparable damage to the negative. | [175] [176] |
| 2004 | Big Bug Man | Bob Bendetson, Peter Shin | Bob Bendetson | Brendan Fraser, Marlon Brando, Michael Madsen | The animated film was planned for release between 2006 and 2008. It was Brando's final performance before his death in July 2004. | [177] | |
| 2007 | Hippie Hippie Shake | Beeban Kidron | Lee Hall | Tim Bevan | Cillian Murphy, Sienna Miller | Based on the memoir of the same name by Richard Neville, the film was shot in 2007 and a rough cut was test screened, but director Kidron left the project during post-production and the film was never released. | [178] |
| 2008 | Queen of Media | Furqaan Clover | Kimba Henriques, Furqaan Clover | Richard Miller | Robin Givens, Oliver "Power" Grant | Based on Wendy Williams' biography Wendy's Got the Heat, the film was shot in 2008 with a $3 million budget, but was never released. | [179] |
| 2008–2009 | Black Water Transit | Tony Kaye | Matthew Chapman | Laurence Fishburne, Karl Urban | Budgeted at $23 million, the film was shot in 2008 and a rough cut was screened, but it was never completed due to financial and legal disputes. | [180] | |
| 2010 | Prankstar | Tom Green | Tom Green | Katy Wallin | Tom Green | The mockumentary written by, directed by, and starring Tom Green was completed in 2010 and announced for release later than year, but never materialized. | [181] [182] |
| 2011–2012 | The Power of Zhu/The Secret of Zhu/Journey to GloE | Cepia LLC created The Dream Garden Company for 4 films [183] with distribution by Universal Pictures. [184] On September 27, 2011, the ZhuZhu Pets franchise first full-length feature film Quest for Zhu was released straight-to-DVD. A second full-length feature film, The Power of Zhu, probably in the works and has a trailer, [185] potentially being released on DVD sometime in 2012 as well as a third film The Secret of Zhu that featured the voices of Brad Garrett and Ken Jeong [186] and fourth film Journey to GloE. [187] However, as of February 2014, no other films or even plans for films have been released for The Power of Zhu, although it was completed and was "secretly distributed" to TV stations in France and Brazil under the title Amazing Adventures of Zhu. [188] [189] | |||||
| 2010s | Poe | Michael Sporn | Animator Michael Sporn was producing and directing an animated feature based the life of Edgar Allan Poe when he died in January 2014. [190] | ||||
| 2012 | Killing Winston Jones | Joel David Moore | Justin Trevor Winters | Albert Sandoval, Daemon Hillin, Tom Somerset, Peter Winther | Danny Glover, Richard Dreyfuss, Jon Heder, Danny Masterson | The dark comedy was shot in late 2012 and was originally scheduled to be released in theaters in 2014. However, no release was announced and the studio has not made any statements about the film since 2014. The release was reportedly cancelled due to the rape allegations and criminal trial against Danny Masterson, who plays a prominent role. | [191] [192] |
| 2015 | The Long Home | James Franco | Vince Jolivett, Steve Janas | James Franco, Vince Jolivett, Jay Davis | James Franco, Josh Hutcherson, Tim Blake Nelson, Courtney Love, Timothy Hutton, Giancarlo Esposito, Ashton Kutcher, Josh Hartnett | Filmed in 2015 and planned for release in 2017, it has yet to be released in any format as of 2025. | [193] [194] |
| 2016 | El Señor de la Sierra | Alejandro Irias | Alejandro Irias | Jefferson Sierra | Based on the historical novel of the same name, written by Ramon Amaya. The film was set during the conquest of Honduras, focusing on the life of the indigenous leader Lempira. The film was completed, however, there were delays in its release in national theaters of its country of origin. Currently there is not much information due to its delayed release, although the lack of a release date could be attributed to a lack of budget. | [195] | |
| 2016 | Second Blood | Fawzi Al-Khatib | Shehab Al-Fadhli, Fayez Hussein Ali | Mohammed AlSayed, Mehdi Boushahri, Mohamed Al Mubarak | Abdulhadi Al-Khayat, Ranaa Ghandour, Khaled Al-Buraiki, Mojeb Al-Qabandi | A Kuwaiti action film described as a Rambo: First Blood Part II rip-off. It stars bodybuilding champion Abdulhadi Al-Khayat as Yousef Rambu. Reports about the availability of Second Blood vary depending on the sources. The movie was supposed to be released in several Asian countries on VOD and in a few theaters, given a very limited distribution (in late 2016). At the same time, on the IMDb website, the film currently has no dedicated votes. | [196] [197] [198] [199] |
| 2016–2017 | Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon | Ben Palmer | Neil Forsyth | Joseph Fiennes, Brian Cox, Stockard Channing | The film, based on an urban legend of Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor embarking on a road trip to Ohio following the September 11 attacks, was shot in 2016. It was later announced that the film would be repackaged as an episode of the British TV series Urban Myths , but never aired due to controversy surrounding white actor Fiennes playing Jackson. | [200] [201] | |
| 2017 | Gore | Michael Hoffman | Andy Paterson | Michael Hoffman and Jay Parini | Kevin Spacey, Michael Stuhlbarg and Douglas Booth | Based on Jay Parini's biography of Gore Vidal, Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal, the film was in post-production when Netflix decided to cancel it following the sexual assault allegations against Kevin Spacey. | [202] |
| 2019 | Klecha | Jacek Gwizdała | Wojciech Pestka, Janusz Petelski, Jacek Gwizdała | Andrzej Stachecki, Jacek Gwizdała | Mirosław Baka, Marcin Bosak | A biographical and historical film about the activities of priest Roman Kotlarz, including the June 1976 protests. The movie was supposed to be a promotion for the region and the city of Radom. Due to the bankruptcy of the producer and lack of funds, the film was not completed. | [203] |
| 2020 | Kukuriraige: Sanxingdui Fantasy | Fumikazu Satou | Huang Jun | Marie Miyake | A Japanese/Chinese animated co-production, the film was originally intended to be released on February 27, 2020, alongside the short film Jewelpet Attack Travel! , but was postponed indefinitely due to production issues. As of 2022, there are no plans to release the film at any point in the foreseeable future. | [204] | |
| 2021 | The Mothership | Matt Charman | Matt Charman | Fred Berger | Halle Berry, Molly Parker, Omari Hardwick | Netflix cancelled the release of the film due to post-production difficulties. | [205] |
| 2021–2022 | Batgirl | Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah | Christina Hodson | Kristin Burr | Leslie Grace, J. K. Simmons, Jacob Scipio, Brendan Fraser, Michael Keaton | The film was originally intended to be released on streaming platform HBO Max, with discussions internally about potentially giving the film a theatrical release, especially with the film's estimated $90 million budget. The film was in post-production and had been test screened when Warner Bros. Discovery decided to shelve the film, stating that it would not be released in theaters nor on streaming platforms and saying that the film "simply did not work" and went against the new desire and mandate from CEO David Zaslav to make DC films "big theatrical event films". | [206] |
| 2022 | Scoob! Holiday Haunt | Bill Haller, Michael Kurinsky | Tony Cervone, Paul Dini | Tony Cervone, Mitchell Ferm | Frank Welker, Andre Braugher | A prequel to 2020's Scoob!, the film was in late stages of post-production and scheduled for a December 2022 release on HBO Max when Warner Bros. Discovery cancelled its release. | [207] |
| 2024 | Jodie | Tracee Ellis Ross (voice) | MTV Entertainment Studios shelved the completed television film in March 2024 instead of airing it on Comedy Central. The company has let the creators attempt to shop it to other studios. | [208] | |||
| 2025 | Golden | Michel Gondry | Martin Hynes | Pharrell Williams | Kelvin Harrison Jr., Halle Bailey, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Brian Tyree Henry, Quinta Brunson, Janelle Monáe, Jaboukie Young-White, Tim Meadows, Anderson .Paak, Missy Elliott, André 3000, Jamilah Rosemond, Jayson Lee | Initially scheduled to be released on May 9, 2025, the film was canceled during post-production by Universal Pictures after $20 million had been spent shooting it, as well as disagreements with the producers. Variety reported in February 2025 that the film was permanently shelved and will not be released. It will also not be offered to other studios for completion or distribution. | [209] |
| Year of release | Film | Production Phase | Director | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | Passenger | Released | Andrzej Munk, Witold Lesiewicz | Director Andrzej Munk died in a car accident while the film was being edited. The finished film was edited by Witold Lasiewicz, whose premiere took place on September 20, 1963, on the second anniversary of Munk's death. | |
| 2012 | Dark Blood | Limited Release | George Sluizer | River Phoenix died during production in 1993, after approximately 80% of the film had been shot. In 2012, a cut of the film was screened at several film festivals with director Sluizer providing narration for the scenes that were not shot. | |
| 2018 | The Man Who Killed Don Quixote | Released | Terry Gilliam | During the first week of shooting, the actor playing Don Quixote (Jean Rochefort) suffered a herniated disc, and a flood severely damaged the set. The film was cancelled, resulting in an insurance claim of US$15 million. The production of the film was the basis of the 2002 documentary Lost in La Mancha , and Gilliam ultimately completed the film nearly two decades later, as 2018's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote . | [144] |
| 2018 | The Other Side of the Wind | Released | Orson Welles | Orson Welles had directed the film between 1970 and 1976 and was intended to be his American directional comeback. Welles kept working on the project periodically into the 1980s, but it was never finished due to political, legal, and financial issues. Welles died in 1985, but there have been multiple attempts to recreate the incomplete movie. In 2014, Royal Road completed the film after acquisition and it was released in 2018. | |
| 2020 | Grizzly II: Revenge | Released | André Szöts | A sequel to 1976's Grizzly starring Louise Fletcher and John Rhys-Davies in major roles with early career appearances by Charlie Sheen, George Clooney, and Laura Dern. Production began in 1983 but halted when producer Joseph Ford Proctor fled location filming in Hungary after the first day of shooting, which left the film without funding. Enough money was obtained by co-producers to complete filming, but no completion funds were available until 2020. | [210] |
| 2023 | Nimona | Released | Nick Bruno and Troy Quane | The film was initially meant to release in 2022, but was cancelled after The Walt Disney Company shut down Blue Sky Studios, which they acquired through their purchase of 20th Century Fox, even though 75% of the movie was complete. However, Netflix saved the movie - purchasing, finishing, and releasing it in 2023. It went on to be nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Critics' Choice, Annie Awards and Academy Awards. | |
| 2026 | Coyote vs. Acme | Upcoming | Dave Green | The film was originally set to be released theatrically by Warner Bros. Pictures and scheduled for July 21, 2023. It was later delayed, with Barbie taking its original release date. On November 9, 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that the film had been shelved in order to obtain a tax write-off. However, following public backlash, the company allowed the film to be shopped to other distributors. On March 31, 2025, it was announced that Ketchup Entertainment had acquired the rights to distribute the film, which it plans to release theatrically in August 28, 2026. | [211] |
The most expensive films with information available from reliable sources regarding how much money had been spent on the film when it was abandoned.
| Year of production | Film | Loss | Inflation Adjusted Loss [212] [ when? ] | State when abandoned | Studio | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Batgirl | $90 million | $102 million | Post-production | Warner Bros. | [213] |
| 2024 | The Mothership | $40 million | $45.6 million | Post-production | Netflix | |
| 2022 | Scoob! Holiday Haunt | $40 million | $45.6 million | Completed | Warner Bros. | [214] |
| 2017 | Gore | $39 million | $48.9 million | Post-production | Netflix | [215] |
| 1999–2000 | The Man Who Killed Don Quixote | $32 million | $55.2 million | Filming | Various | [216] |
| 1996–1998 | Superman Lives | $30 million | $53.7 million | Pre-production | Warner Bros. | [217] |
| 1991–1992 | Genghis Khan | $30 million | $60 million | Post-production | International Cinema Co | [218] |
{{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help){{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |leanguage= ignored (help)Through its own investigation, Cepia learned that Universal International had distributed the Amazing Adventures of Zhu to at least two television broadcasters without Cepia's knowledge or approval." Cepia adds that the "unilateral actions were especially harmful" because the television airings in Brazil and France "destroyed the potential DVD/Blu-Ray market" and further, "led to its availability on the Internet for free download.