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. [1]
Sometimes in the 1990s, Lee reportedly wanted to remake 1951's Ace in the Hole , directed by Billy Wilder. [4] [5]
In 1992, it was reported that Lee had written and was expected to direct an episode of Francis Ford Coppola's planned revival of the anthology drama series Playhouse 90 , Playhouse '90s, a series of "live, one-hour dramatic plays" for CBS. [6] The project never came to fruition.
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. [7] The movie was focused on Louis' fights with Max Schmeling with Arnold Schwarzenegger interested in playing Schmeling. [8] In July 2006, Schulberg mentioned that Lee talked with Terrence Howard to play Louis. [9] The film fell into development hell because Lee didn't get half of the budget he needed. Following the death of Schulberg, Lee reaffirmed his intention to make the film both in 2018 and 2021. "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." [10] [11]
Until 2001, Lee was to direct the film for Miramax. However, budgetary constraints and Lee's insistence on engaging celebrities like Justin Timberlake and Brittany Murphy stalled the project for a time. [1] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
In May 2006, Lee was set to direct 20th Century Fox's supernatural thriller Selling Time, [17] with Tom Cruise in talks to star. [18] 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. [19] However, plans fell in development hell and its fate is unknown after the Acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney was completed. [20]
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. [21]
In May 2008, [22]
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. [23] [24] [25] [26] The film was to have been titled Time Traveler and Lee was to have co-written and directed it. [27] [28] 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." [29]
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. [30] 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 . [31] There has been no further announcements since.
In 2009, Lee acquired the rights to Brendan Koerner's novel Now the Hell Will Start, a World War II manhunt in the Burmese jungle. [32] However, plans fell into development hell.
In April 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." [33] On January 24, 2011, it was announced that Lee scrapped the project. [34]
In June 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. [35] However, plans fell into development hell.
In 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. [36] 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. [37] The following year, both the Gershwin family and the DuBose Heyward estate announced a remake was in development without Lee's involvement. [38] In 2020, Dee Rees was hired to write and direct the remake. [39]
On July 27, 2013, Lee told Black&Sexy TV that he had a script for a planned contemporary-set sequel to his film School Daze . "Hopefully I can get Laurence Fishburne to play Dap [again]. He'll be the president now of the school," Lee said. "And we would deal with issues around Historically Black Colleges today." According to Lee, the new issues would include homophobia, modern pledging, class issues, color and hair texture. [42] [43] In December the following year, information was leaked by Sony regarding the casting of Drake and Kevin Hart in the film, revealed to be titled School Daze Too. [44] [45]
On July 29, 2013, filmmaker Paul Schrader revealed that he reached out to Lee, offering to write a script for him to direct about Clarence Thomas, saying, "If either one of us did it alone, it wouldn't have as much strength to it." [43]
In 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. [46] In 2015, Brett Ratner revealed that he replaced Lee as director, [47] and in 2018, David Leitch was in early talks to direct. [48]
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. [49]
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, [50] and he was confirmed to be interested in the project in March 2018, with Cheo Hodari Coker re-writing the script. [51] However, Lee was no longer involved by October. [52]
In November 2018, Lee was set up to direct a film version of the stage show by Roger Guenveur Smith, Frederick Douglass Now. [54]
In 2019, Lee closed a deal to direct the long-gestated Prince of Cats film, based on the graphic novel. [55]
In 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. [56] Production was set to begin in early 2023 under the title Rise, [57] though Lee later reported that it had been retitled Boner. [58]
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. [59] 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. [60]
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. [61]
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 . [62]
In 2025, it was reported that Lee was developing and eyeing to direct the comedic military drama Liberty based on a pitch from writers Jalysa Conway and Rebecca Murga. The project was said to be "in the vein" of the 1973 film The Last Detail . [63]
Justin Lin is a Taiwanese-American film and television director, producer, and screenwriter. His films have grossed over $3 billion USD worldwide as of March 2017. He is best known for his directorial work on Better Luck Tomorrow (2002), the Fast & Furious franchise from The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) to Fast & Furious 6 (2013) and F9 (2021), and Star Trek Beyond (2016). He is also known for his work on television programs like Community, and True Detective.
David Ayer is an American filmmaker known for making crime films that are set in Los Angeles and deal with gangs and police corruption. His screenplays include Training Day (2001), The Fast and the Furious (2001), and S.W.A.T. (2003). He has also directed Harsh Times (2005), Street Kings (2008), End of Watch (2012), Sabotage (2014), and The Beekeeper (2024). In 2016, he directed the superhero movie Suicide Squad from the DC Extended Universe, and then the urban fantasy film Bright (2017) for Netflix. He has twice collaborated with actor Shia LaBeouf: first with the World War II drama Fury (2014), then the crime thriller The Tax Collector (2020). He has also collaborated with his friend Cle Shaheed Sloan who has appeared in four of his films.
Shawn Adam Levy is a Canadian filmmaker and actor. He is the founder of 21 Laps Entertainment. His work has spanned numerous genres, and his films as a director have grossed a collective $3.5 billion worldwide.
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.
Diandrea Rees is an American screenwriter and director. She is known for her feature films Pariah (2011), Bessie (2015), Mudbound (2017), and The Last Thing He Wanted (2020). Rees has also written and directed episodes for television series including Empire, When We Rise, and Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams.
Amazon MGM Studios, formerly Amazon Studios, is an American film and television production and distribution studio owned by Amazon. It was launched in 2010. It took its current name in May 2023 following its merger with MGM Holdings, which Amazon had acquired the year prior.
Andrés Walter Muschietti is an Argentine film director and screenwriter who had his breakthrough with the 2013 film Mama. He gained further recognition for directing both films in the It film series, the 2017 film adaptation of the Stephen King novel and its 2019 sequel, It Chapter Two. In 2023, he directed the DC Extended Universe film The Flash.
Vertigo Entertainment is an American film and television production company based in Los Angeles, founded in 2001 by Roy Lee and Doug Davison.
The following is a list of unproduced Steven Spielberg projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American film director Steven Spielberg 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 were officially canceled, some were turned over to other production teams, and still others never made it past the speculative stage.
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 Chris Columbus projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American film director Chris Columbus has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects, are officially scrapped or linger in "development hell."
Paramount Players is an American film production label of Paramount Pictures, focusing on "contemporary properties" while working with other Paramount Global brands. The name alludes to the company's earliest origins as Famous Players Film Company, before its 1914 founding by William Wadsworth Hodkinson.
Studio 8 is an American entertainment company founded in 2014, by Jeff Robinov, John Graham, and Mark Miner based in Culver City. It specializes in film and television production.
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 Picture Company is an American entertainment company founded in 2014, by Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman, in Glendale, California. It specializes in film, starting off moderately in 2018 with Jaume Collet-Serra's The Commuter and Albert Hughes' Alpha.
Balboa Productions is an American film and television production company founded and led by Sylvester Stallone. The studio is named after his character Rocky Balboa from the Rocky franchise.
Apple Studios LLC is an American film, television and in-house production company that is a subsidiary of Apple Inc. It specializes in developing and producing original television series and films for Apple's digital video streaming service Apple TV+ as well as films that are intended for theatrical releases.
The following is a list of unproduced Robert Zemeckis projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American film director Robert Zemeckis has worked on several projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage. Some of these projects fell in development hell, were officially cancelled, were in development limbo or would see life under a different production team.