I Learned About 19 Films That Never Saw Theaters, And The Reasons Are Shocking
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So much time, work, and money goes into creating films. Unfortunately, sometimes all the stars don't align, and some movies get the ax before release.
Here are 19 films that got the ax before they could ever hit theaters:
1.Batgirl
You can never have too many superhero movies, right? DC Studios launched a new project called Batgirl and tabbed Leslie Grace (In the Heights) for the starring role of the crime-fighting, vigilante woman.
Despite filming most of the scenes, the studio pulled the plug on the project when production was almost finished. DC Studios co-chair told Variety that the film was "unreleasable."
2.Superman Lives
Warner Brothers brought in Tim Burton to create a new version of Superman. Burton cast Nicolas Cage for the Man of Steel and had all kinds of wacky ideas for the film.
"It was more of a 1980s Superman with, like, the samurai black long hair," Cage told Variety. "I thought it was gonna be a really different, sort of emo Superman, but we never got there."
The movie got scrapped before filming started, so we never got any live-action footage of Super-Cage.
3.My Best Friend's Birthday
This screwball comedy, technically, was the first Quinten Tarantino film.
There are outrageous rumors that half of the film burned in a fire, but no evidence supports the claim. The truth is that Tarantino was unsatisfied with the final product and chose not to release it.
4.Robert Zemeckis's Yellow Submarine
If you ever wanted a realistic animated version of The Beatles, Robert Zemeckis's Yellow Submarine tried to deliver just that. It was a planned reimagining of the film by the same title, a hand-drawn animation released in 1968. In the original, they dealt with the music-hating "blue-meanies."
Disney scrapped the idea after Zemeckis's A Christmas Carol underperformed at the box office.
5.Midnight Rider
This biopic about Greg Allman starred William Hurt.
The film's production was suspended due to a fatal train accident involving a crew member. Countless lawsuits and investigations followed, and the film hasn't been touched since they attempted to resume filming and faced backlash.
The producers were charged with involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespass, and received prison time.
6.Revenge of the Nerds
There was a remake set for the 1984 raunchy comedy in the mid-2000s. They started shooting with a script, cast, and location in place.
Fox Atomic scrapped the movie after an unsuccessful two first weeks of shooting, which included having to switch to a different campus after the university officials looked at the script and declined involvement.
7.10 Things I Hate About Life
This sequel/spinoff cast Evan Rachel Wood and Thomas McDonnell in its leading roles, hoping to recapture the magic of 10 Things I Hate About You.
Producers sued Wood for leaving the project and even tried to replace her with Hayley Atwell. It was never meant to be as the CEO of the film company stepped down, and everything for the film's production unraveled.
8.Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
This Barbie doll-like contemporary film was bizarre and loved by the few who saw it. It was a narrative shaped as a biopic criticizing the objectification of female celebrities.
While the movie made the rounds through film festivals, it never got a theatrical release. It was pulled after the creator lost a copyright infringement lawsuit from the musical collaborator.
9.Something's Got to Give
The screwball film starred Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, and Cyd Charisse. A good portion of the movie was filmed, but Monroe was fired from the project. She had a high fever and refused to show on set, which led to the producer cutting ties with her.
They tried to recast Monroe, but co-star Martin said he "signed to do the picture with Marilyn Monroe, and I will do it with no one else." That was one of the reasons the movie was never finished, and it's hard to imagine her death shortly after contributed to the decision.
10.The Fantastic Four
In 1994, the infamous Marvel Comics foursome was set to make its big screen debut. It was an origin story film that had them face off against the team's biggest nemesis, Doctor Doom.
An entire documentary was made about the demise of the project. There are accusations of underhand dealings within the production and other rumors. Still, the general feeling around the project was that it did not live up to expectations and thus never granted theatrical release.
11.Prankstar
The prank movie was filmed and finished, according to star and producer Tom Green, but "was canned" before it could be released. In 2012, he responded to a fan in a tweet that Prankstar is "the most insane movie ever."
In 2023, 11 years later, there is no update on the film's status.
12.The Day the Clown Cried
The Jerry Lewis-led film was a story that dealt with the horrors of Jewish people imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp through a character that was a literal clown.
Needless to say, Lewis vowed that the film would never see the light of day and told audiences at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival that he was "embarrassed" by it.
13.Scoob! Holiday Haunt
This animated sequel to Scoob! was set to be Michael Kurinsky's directorial debut. The movie was slated to be released on HBO Max at the time, but Warner Bros. Discovery pulled the film abruptly.
The movie was already paid for and finished by Kurinsky despite cancellation, but it will not get released. Hopefully, for the Mystery Machine gang fans, it will one day find a home on Max.
14.Dark Blood
This thriller featured beloved actor River Phoenix in his first and only role as a villain. In the film, he's a widower holding a couple captive on their honeymoon.
The death of Phoenix resulted in the incomplete film's cancellation. Nineteen years later, a finished product was shown to a private audience, but it never got a theatrical release. (The family was not happy about the movie being shown.)
15.Empires of the Deep
The Chinese-produced film was an action-adventure fantasy setting out to be a major blockbuster. It initially managed to bring in big names like Monica Bellucci, but the cast and crew went through a turnstile of replacements in and out.
With a $130M budget produced by Chinese real estate tycoon Jon Jiang, the movie drowned in all sorts of problems from scheduling conflicts, CGI troubles, and failed crowdfunding.
16.All-Star Weekend
The attempted comedy had an all-star (no pun intended) cast with Jamie Foxx at the helm.
Foxx wanted to "push the boundaries" of comedy, and one example of his vision was having Robert Downey Jr. play a Mexican character. The film's production was pushed back in 2019 and eventually shelved.
17.Killing Winston Jones
The dark-indie comedy was filmed and ready for release with big names like Danny Glover, Richard Dreyfuss, and Jon Heder.
The film was canceled in 2017 due to the rape charges made against Danny Masterson, shelving the film permanently.
18.The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
In 1999, filmmaker Terry Gilliam had a vision for a time-jumping fantasy involving a man meeting Sancho Panza. The film cast Johnny Depp in the leading role and began filming. The entire movie was canceled after the actor who played Sancho Panza was injured during filming, and a flood damaged the set.
Two decades later, Gilliam tackled the project again, but with Adam Driver in the leading role. You can watch the trailer here.
19.And lastly, the original unreleased picture, A Woman of the Sea
As the O.G. of abandoned projects, this film was produced by Charlie Chaplin. Little is known about it, but it was seemingly a love story involving the daughters of a fisherman and a writer who comes to town.
It is believed Chaplin himself destroyed the silent film as a tax write-off.
