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The production of a film, if it is not a deliberately successful product, is a huge risk for the studio and everyone involved in the shooting. Sometimes this risk is not justified and the tape fails, and sometimes vice versa – it shoots.
There are also a number of projects that were not even given a chance to even come into being, so the world will never know what would have come of it.
We bring to your attention 10 films that were planned, but never saw the light of day.
10 Mortal Kombat 3
The first part of “Mortal Kombat”, although it was coldly received by critics, the viewer liked it. Now, after a couple of decades, this film is considered one of the best adaptations of video games, and we are talking about the first part.
The sequel, which was expected to work on the bugs, turned out to be many times worse than the original and was scolded by everyone without exception: both the press and the audience.
The icing on the cake, or rather the last nail in the coffin, was the box office failure, which put an end to the third part, the shooting of which was planned.
Negotiations were held with the actors, a director was looking for, there was even a draft version of the script, but the world never saw the results of all this.
9. Halo
In the middle of the 28s, video game fans’ hopes for a quality adaptation were at their peak, as Microsoft decided to bring their Halo series to the big screen. For this, a good screenwriter Alex Garland, who had previously been noted for his work on the film XNUMX Days Later, was hired, and Peter Jackson himself was listed as the producer.
Unfortunately, the film studios could not agree on the process of work with Microsoft: the latter wanted to take an active part in the filming, while the studios were against it.
As a result, the film was never made, and now the game series should become the basis for a television series. Also not bad, given the level of modern TV, but still not the ultimate dream.
8. World War Z 2
The first part of the film, which for some reason we called World War Z, was created with difficulty: the script was repeatedly rewritten, there were problems with the police at the filming locations, and the production budget increased exorbitantly.
Under such conditions, all hope was that the picture would perform well at the box office, which eventually happened: 540 million with a budget of 190 is, although not a success, but still an acceptable result.
It was decided to shoot the second part, which was supposed to be released in 2019, but a series of problems began again: they could not find a screenwriter, director, coordinate the filming schedule with the leading actors, etc.
In the end, when they already seemed to have agreed with David Fincher, they decided to cover up the production of the sequel altogether.
There are still illusory chances of his exit, but they are very illusory.
7. Hot zone
This film had every chance of becoming one of the main releases of the mid-90s: a sci-fi thriller with Ridley Scott in the director’s chair and Jodie Foster with Robert Redford in the lead roles – what else is needed for success?
The project, oddly enough, was ruined by the star actors: they constantly made changes to the script, which was written for a long time and with difficulty because of this, and when the final version seemed to be approved, Jodie Foster decided to go home. It happened 2 weeks before the start of filming, but the creators managed to agree with Meryl Streep, but not for long: after a couple of days, she also refused the role.
The plot was supposed to tell about the Ebola virus, which affects only monkeys, and in humans, when infected, it causes various mutations.
6. American tragedy
Sergei Eisenstein is one of the greatest directors in the history of world cinema: his films The Battleship Potemkin and Alexander Nevsky have gone down in history forever. In the first half of the last century, he traveled across America and Europe, sharing his experience and adopting the skills of Western masters.
In 1930, he signed a contract with Paramount to film an adaptation of Theodore Dreiser’s novel An American Tragedy, but the script he wrote seemed too depressing to the management, so the project was never realized.
5. Spiderman 4
Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy is much more beloved by fans of the hero than subsequent reboots, but not everyone knows that not three, but four films were planned. The director had a contract with the studio and managed to get Tobey Maguire to don the superhero costume again, but then production hell began.
At first, the studio could not agree with the actor, then problems with the script began, then it was impossible to agree with Kirsten Dunst, and in the end Sam Raimi simply left the project. The studio had no choice but to cancel the picture.
4. Superman alive
In 1998, Tim Burton was supposed to start filming a solo Superman movie starring Nicolas Cage. The director had been hatching this project for a year, but the studio closed it 3 weeks before the start.
Most of all, Cage, who has been a fan of this hero since childhood (in 2005, he named his son Kal-El), was upset the most, but his sadness was somewhat moderated by a compensation of $ 20 million (according to rumors).
3. Napoleon
It was to be the biggest film in the career of the great director Stanley Kubrick, which he planned to shoot immediately after A Space Odyssey.
Having worked through the plot, having studied the life of Napoleon from and to, he, unfortunately, did not receive a “green light” from any of the studios. Everyone understood that tens or even hundreds of millions would have to be spent on such a historical epic, which could not pay off.
2. Messenger
Sergei Bodrov Jr. never positioned himself as an actor. Having no acting education, he always said that directing was closer to him, in which he managed to prove himself on the first try: the film “Sisters” turned out really good.
“The Messenger” was supposed to be his second work, but due to the tragedy of September 20, 2002, which claimed the life of Sergei, this never happened.
1. 900 days
The cult director Sergio Leone nurtured the idea of a film about the siege of Leningrad for about 20 years, but got to its implementation only in the second half of the 80s. Just imagine, he agreed with the Soviet Union and received permission to shoot in real Leningrad, and he wanted to call Robert De Niro for the main role.
He even found money, as much as 100 million dollars, but fate decreed otherwise: the director died 2 days before signing the contract for financing, and without him the project was doomed.